A brooding statue!

A picture that would haunt you – The Appennine Colossus by Giambologna.

The Appennine Colossus by Giambologna.

Measuring about 35 feet tall, this is arguably the most spectacular feature of the gardens of Villa Medici at Pratolino, located about 12 km north of Florence, Italy. A personification of the Apennine mountain ranges, this statue was carved by  legendary Italian sculptor Giambologna (1529 – 1608), who is responsible for well-known works such as various versions of Mercury, plus Samson Slaying a Philistine (1562), Rape of the Sabine Women (1574-82) and Hercules beating the Centaur Nessus (1599). The statue is in actual a building with a network of grottoes, their walls studded with shells, corals, pearls and crystals, and painted with frescoes of muscled men mining precious ores. Inside the statues head is a chamber which once housed an ochestra and two working fountains, one of which portrayed the Greek Goddess of Water – Thetis (also the mother of the Trojan war hero Achilles).

Nature’s gift – Frying Pan Lake.

In 1886, a volcano named Mount Tarawer situated near the town of Rotorua on New Zealand’s North Island erupted. It was the country’s largest volcanic eruption that claimed over a hundred lives. It left behind a massive crater. To make up for the disaster created, less than 130 years after that, nature gifted New Zealand with the largest hot spring in the world – The Frying Pan Lake.

The Frying Pan Lake, Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley, New Zealand

The Frying Pan Lake, situated in Waimangu Volcanic Valley covers an area of 38,000 sq mtrs and is fed by an uncounted number of acid springs. Although the average temperature of the lake is around 50°C the hottest areas are almost boiling. As a result steam and various noxious gases are constantly released from Frying Pan Lake.

Travel Quote

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”
― Anaïs Nin

A Wall That Plays Music When It Rains…

The musical funnel wall

The Funnel Wall at the Kunsthof-Passage in Neustadt, Germany. It’s a Rube Goldberg inspired wall that creates music when it rains, due to the mousetrap drain and gutter system with various sized metal cones!

Travel Quote

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Travel Quote

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
– Oscar Wilde

A wonder work of Nature or a Hoax – The Narilatha/ Nareepol Flower

Flowers in the shape of a Naked Woman! The Himalayas of the forests of Thailand would be your destination to search these…

The Narilatha flowering plant produces one of the most wonderful and rarest of flowers in the world. Said to grow in the hilly slopes of Himalayas in India and also in the forests of Thailand, it blossoms into a lady like flower after a 20-year interval. It is believed that in times of yore the concentration of hermits and sages doing deep meditation would be shattered at the sight of these lady-shaped flowers. A look at the flowers explains why!

Quote

When a lady said – “We must destroy our enemies”, Lincoln replied, “Do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?”

A stunning heart that bleeds!

The drop of blood bleeding out of a tender heart!

These beautiful flowers are Lamprocapnos spectabilis more commony known as – The Bleeding Heart Flowers! As the plants’ common name suggests, bleeding hearts bear heart-shaped flowers, from which a little “drop of blood” dangles at the bottom. Native to woodlands of eastern Asia primarily China, this shade loving perennial found in red, pink or white colors. Being a popular ornamental plant for flower gardens in temperate climates, the bleeding heart flower is also used in floristry as a cut flower for Valentine’s Day. With about a week left for the V-Day, a stunning gift from nature for your beloved!

The various stages of a bleeding heart – tiny little bud to a newly formed heart to a fully-grown one to a heart slowly ripping apart!

Light pink color of the flowers attempts to underplay the name that reflects tragedy!

Even the colorless heart forms an intriguing picture

For the season of love…

First up are these beautiful twin hearts…

For the conjoined hearts…

Located on the north side of Cimei island of Penghu archipelago, Taiwan, these twin hearts are actually a traditional fishing trap. Originally, the twin hearts stone weir was built of basalt and coral reefs, however, as the catches decreased gradually, fishing has almost ceased at the place. But, the twin hearts stone weir continues to attract tourists from across the world contributing to the economy of Penghu.