Seven Amazing Trees

Seven amazing trees from all over the world.

Oak chapel

Oak chapel or Chêne chapelle is an oak tree, is a religious monument and object of pilgrimage.This is situated in AllouvilleBellefosse, France. The tree is between 800 to 1,200 years old. The hollow trunk has two chapel inside which were build in 1669. This religious monument is surrounded with spiral staircase for access.
Oak Chappel  at allouville bellefosse

Oak Chappel at allouville bellefosse

source : Old Trees in The Netherlands and Western Europe

 Circus Tree

Axel Erlandson, an American farmer has a hobby of giving unique shapes to trees. He opened a horticulture attraction in 1947, which was named The Tree Circus.
Circus tree

Circus tree

Basket Tree

Different shapes of Circus Tree

Chandelier Tree

Chandelier Tree is a 315 foot (96 metre) tall coast redwood tree in Leggett, California with a 6 foot (1.83m) wide by 9 foot (2.74m) high hole cut through its base to allow a car to drive through. The hole was carved in the 1930s.

 

Chandelier Tree in California - One of seven amazing trees

Chandelier Tree in California – One of seven amazing trees

 Baobab

Also known as bottle tree, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree, can grow up to grow up to nearly 100 feet (30 m) tall and 35 feet (11 m) wide. Baobabs store water inside the swollen trunk (up to 120,000 litres (32,000 US gal)) to endure the harsh drought conditions.

 

Baobab Tree at Limpopo Province, South Africa

Baobab Tree at Limpopo Province, South Africa

One species, Limpopo Province, South Africa, often considered the largest example alive, has a circumference of 47 metres (150 ft) and an average diameter of 15 metres (49 ft). Carbon dating has been used to estimate the age of the specimens at approximately 6000 years.

Tea pot Baobob
 

Bristlecone pine

Bristlecone pine are considered as the oldest tree in the world, some living up to 5,000 years.
Methuselah, named tree is considered as the oldest tree and non-clonal organism still alive in the white mountains of eastern California, at the age of about 4,841 years, its exact location is currently undisclosed to the public as a protection against vandalism.
Bristlecone pine

Bristlecone pine

Banyan tree
Banyan tree has a big canopy with ariel prop roots running from its branches to ground and covers several hectors of land, with age these roots become thick and woody and become
indistinguishable from main trunk. Buddha is believed to have achieved enlightenment under banyan tree (bodhi tree) in Bodhgaya in India.

This large banyan tree was planted in 1873,in Hawaii and now it has coveredtwo-third of an acre
Due to the complex structure of the roots and extensive branching, the banyan is extensively used for creating Bonsai.

Bonsai of Banyan Tree

Tule tree

In Spanish this tree is known as El Árbol del Tule, is located in Oaxaca a Mexican city.
This tree has the stoutest trunk in the world.This tree has the stoutest trunk in the world measuring trunk girth at 190 feet (58 m) and trunk diameter at 37 feet (11.3 m). Initially it was thought to be multiple trees, but DNA tests have proven that it is only one tree.
Arbor Del tule tree in Mexico

Arbor Del tule tree in Mexico

Closer view of tree

The tree is also known as “Tree of Life” from all the images of animals that are reputedly visible in the tree’s gnarled trunk.

Tarapeeth Temple – Sati Shakti Peeth ( Tarapith )

Tarapeeth (Tarapith) – Sati Shakti Peeth

Tarapeeth or Tarapith, is one of the Shakti Peeths in India. There are a number of Shakti peeths in india, which is based on the famous incident of Devi Sati giving up her life after her husband was insulted by her father, Daksha Prajapati.
TaraMaa ofTarapith is another form of Kali. She has two hands, is garlanded with snakes, is adorned in sacred threads, and has Shiva lying in her left lap sucking her breast.  This temple is dedicated to the destructive aspect of Shiva, who takes the form of Kali. She requires sacrifice daily to satisfy her blood lust so every morning goats are sacrifices on the altar of the temple.The temple is busy throughout the year and is surrounded by poor who come to have free meal. This is one of the most sacred places where every year several millions of devotees come to offer worship. Tarapith is regarded as Mahapeeth and extremely holy place for all Hindus.
It is said that wherever you are in this beautiful world, whatever be you and your religion, the kindness and blessings of Maa Tara will reach you to fulfill your desires, if you are an honest and upright person. She will provide you relief from pain if any your heart and mind. This is the reason for which every year millions of devotees gathers at this place to offer Puja and prayer.

Tarapeeth is among 52 Shakti Peeth is situated on a hill top at a distance of 30 Kms towards north of Brahmapur on the south bank of river Rushikulya. This temple is 264 km from Kolkata, Tarapith is situated on the banks of the north flowing Dwarka River, in Birbhum, in West Bengal.

There are 999 steps on the front side of the hill leading to the temple and also a pucca road for vehicle on the backside of the hill facilitating devotees to reach at the Pitha. This is one among the ancient shakti peeth and is also called mahapeeth.
The Twin Goddesses Tara and Tarini are worshiped as manifestations of Adi Shakti. Two stones anthropomorphized by the addition of gold and silver ornaments and shaped as human faces represent the Goddesses Tara and Tarini as the deities of this temple. Between them are placed two beautiful brass heads known as their Chalanti Pratima or their living image.
Festivals that are celebrated here are:
1. Sankranti Mela : This festival is observed on each Sankranti day of the Hindu month.
2. Dola Purnima (Phalguna purnima) during February / March.
3. Chaitra Parba This festival is the most important of the festivals, celebrated at theTara Tarini Pitha. It is observed during each Tuesday of the month of Chaitra.
4. Basantika parba During the month chaitra i.e. March / April.
5. Chitalagi Amabasya (Srabana Amabasya) during July / August.
6. Gamha Purnima ( hrabana Purnima ) during July /August.
7. Saptapuri Amabasya during the month of Bhadraba during August.
8. Sasadiya parba on the month of Ashwina Mulastami to Dushara during September / October
9. Shyamalika puja: on Kartika Amabasya during Oct /Nov.

Another oral legend about the temple states that sage Vasistha practised austerities to Tara, but was unsuccessful, so on the advice of a divine voice, he went to meet the Buddha – an Avatar of god Vishnu – in Tibet. Buddha instructed Vasishtha to worship Tara by the left-handed Tantric worship using five forbidden things like wine and meat. During this time, Buddha had a vision of Tarapith as an ideal location for enshrining the image of Tara in a temple there. Buddha advised Vasishtha to go to Tarapith, the abode of Tara. At Tarapith, Vasishtha did penance by reciting Tara mantra (hymn) 300,000 times. Tara was pleased with Vasishtha’s penance and appeared before him. Vasishtha appealed to Tara to appear before him in the form of a mother suckling Shiva on her breast, the form that Buddha had seen in his divine vision. Tara then incarnated herself in that form before Vasishtha and turned into a stone image. Since then Tara is worshipped in the Tarapith temple in the form of a mother suckling Shiva on her breast

Honeybees sterilise their hives

Scientists have discovered, honeybees sterilise their hives with antimicrobial resin. In doing so, they give the whole colony a form of “social immunity”.
Although honeybee resin is known to kill a range of pathogens, this is the first time that bees themselves have been shown to utilise its properties.
The team published details of their discovery in the journal Evolution.
Honeybees in the wild nest in tree cavities. When founding a new colony, they line the entire nest interior with a thin layer of resins that they mix with wax. This mixture is known as propolis. They also use propolis to smooth surfaces in the hive, close holes or cracks in the nest, reduce the size of the entrances to keep out intruders, and to embalm intruders that they’ve killed in the hive that are too big to remove.
Honeybees store propolis, which is a mixture of wax and resin, inside their hives. A number of studies have shown that propolis has a range of antimicrobial properties, but mostly in relation to human health.
Mike Simone, a PhD student from the University of Minnesota in St Paul, US, and his supervisor Professor Marla Spivak are doing research on propolis, they have already tested the effectiveness of honeybee propolis against the HIV-1 virus. Now they want to know what propolis is doing to the bees. for this experiment they took two hives, in one the walls were lined with the resin and other was without it. they created colonies of honeybees and housed them in each hive. After one week they collected the bees born in both the hives.
Genetic tests on these 7-day-old bees showed that those growing in the resin-rich colonies had less active immune systems. The resins likely inhibited bacterial growth. Therefore the bees did not have to activate their immune systems as much.
There is also some evidence that some mammals and birds coat themselves in naturally-occurring plant resin in a bid to reduce infestations with parasites.

Lotus Temple – The Bahá’í House of Worship

The Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi, India is popularly known as Lotus Temple. This serves as a Mother Temple for Indian Subcontinent and is a prominent attraction in Delhi. This architectural marvel was completed in 10 years under the supervision of a Persian architect, Fariborz Sabha. A team of 800 engineers, technicians, workers and artisans worked together to create this architectural marvel.

This temple gives the impression of a half opened lotus flower surrounded by its leaves. Temple is made of marble, cement, dolomite and sand. It has 27 free-standing marble clad petals arranged in clusters of 3 to form 9 sides, and these 9 doors open into a central hall which has a capacity to accommodate 2500 people. All around the lotus are walkways with beautiful curved balustrades, bridges and stairs that surrounds the nine pools giving it a impression that a flower is floating. The shining pure white marble, the majestic dome,the petals clearly standing out creates a sense of grandeur and awe.

In India Lotus signifies purity and peace and is a representation of the manifestation of God. The ambiance of the place and the scope of meditation inside the temple and the serene surrounding is very impressive. Lotus temple has no picture, statue or image. It is open for people of all religion. Its a spot of worship, unity and peace. Peoples of all religion can gather here and worship God without denominational restriction.

This monument has won praises in numerous architectural and engineering journals for its innovative designs and it has also received many prestigious awards.

Believe me if you will sit inside the prayer hall you will get peace of mind in no time and you will forget all your worries. In every visit I personally feel more and more enchanted. When ever you come to Delhi don’t forget to visit this place and I am sure it will have a unforgettable impression on you.

Namak pare (nimki)

Ingredients :
All purpose flour or maida -1 cup
3/4tsp. salt
1/4 tsp carom seeds(ajwain)
2 tbsp oil
about 1/3 cup water
oil to fry
Process:
-In a bowl mix flour, salt, oil, carom seeds.
– Knead it adding little water to make firm but smooth dough, set aside for 10 min.
-Again knead them for a min. then divide them into equal parts.
-Take one ball and roll it like chappati but thicker then chappati.
– Prick it with fork so that it may not puff while frying.
– Cut them in desired shape
– Heat oil and fry them on medium heat. If you will fry them on high heat namak pare will become soft.
– Once cool you can store them in air tight container for days.

Getting Enough Sleep as a Parent

Children steal your sleep, it’s not possible to be a parent without any effect on the quantity and quality of sleep, unless you have vast retinue of retainers at your service. The worse your sleeping patterns are the worse every thing else become in your life, so its well worth mitigating the damage. If children’s are waking up a lot or sleeping at odd times they will probably become irritable, and unable to concentrate just like you….this is potentially a explosive combination. So you will have to make do with routines, common senses and basic psychology.
Hungry
Up to about three months, your sleep is probably not going to be great. . So sort yourself out for maximum comfort – cot next to the bed, baby in bed3, baby feeds while you’re asleep (breast feeding – the bottle tends to fall out of your hand…), whatever. After three months or so, you can start training your baby – spacing feeds, sleeping in their cot, sleeping in their own room perhaps. Good habits and a little bit of suffering now (you may have to sleep less while your baby adjusts) will give you precious extra zeds later.
Thirsty
From about the age when they are no longer in a cot, this is the ultimate weapon of the toddler. What parent could fail to acknowledge the wail of their progeny – ‘daddy I want a glass of water?’ It’s a mystery to this researcher why they get so thirsty at night, but one conclusion could be that this is an acceptable way, when waking up in the middle of the night, to get some attention from one’s parents. You can try putting a glass by the bed, making sure they have a drink at bedtime, but fundamentally, it’s you they want…
Bed Wetting
The downside of all this drinking, of course, is that it has to come out the other end. Children gradually gain control of their bladder from birth until, by the age of three, about half can and do remain dry through the night. Most of the rest have gained voluntary control by the age of five, but bed wetting is a problem for few unlucky ones.
1 in five year old suffers with this
1 in seven year old suffers with this
1 in eleven year old suffers with this,
1 in hundred suffer with it in their early adulthood.
Normally kidney produces a stream of urine in bladder, when it is full it’s stretched and sends signal to brain for the need of urinate. During sleep brain produces vasopressin, which reduces urine output from kidney, usually to a level where bladder does not fill completely until we are awake.
In some children’s brain is not producing enough vasopressin, but a good news is that brain increases the production as the child grows.
In some the bladder is not big enough, this will tend to show with frequent use of toilet during the day.
Some time brain does not recognise the signal because the sleep is deep.
In some the problem may be inherited.
And in some there may be some external factors like, stress, bullying, disturbance at home, or simply a scary bed time story.
Although parent can not teach their child to develop bladder control, but they can encourage child to learn by offering support and encouragement.
Sick
Even when things are going well, when you’ve been sleeping solidly for some time, the other thing that children do a lot of is get sick. This may involve in you waking up to check up on them, because you’re concerned. This is almost the worst, because not only are you up, you’re also having to react, make decisions, deal with a grumpy/weepy/hot/nauseous child. There’s not a lot you can do about it either – other than being prepared by having the appropriate bucket/medicine/spare bedclothes/ handy in case of need.
Terror
Monsters in the wardrobe, gremlins under the bed, nightmares, strange shadows, too dark, wind outside, rain on window, giant lobsters (yes, really): all of these are capable of generating abject terror in the average toddler to young child. They wake up and they will yell until you get there to comfort them. If you’re lucky, the shouting will wake any other children as well. You can try some words of comfort ‘giant lobsters live in the sea, son, not in your bedroom’ or ‘vampires and dragons are only in stories, and pirates and knights are only in the past.. You can try leaving the light on on the landing, or a night light. You can try avoiding certain stories as the bedtime read. But some nightmares are a normal part of development. If you can avoid that the child systematically comes into your bed as a response to this, then that would be a smart plan as this can be a hard habit to break.
Noise
Babies can be sensitive to the slightest creak on some occasions, but can also sleep on, impervious to the most incredible racket if tired enough or used to it. Some sort of halfway house seems the best approach on this – it seems reasonable that older brethren should pipe down while the baby is sleeping, but at the same time if they can only sleep in a ghostly quiet, this will not facilitate an eventual transition to some form of collective childcare, and will make your life trickier as well as everyone tiptoes around the house, finger to lips.
Early
Most children aren’t capable of outlasting their parents in the evening, fortunately, but they are more than capable of waking up at a time that even a dairy farmer would consider a bit premature. Solutions include darker curtains, strict instructions on what to do when they wake up ‘read your book until I come down’ or clocks with eyes shut, eyes open ‘if the rabbit has his eyes shut, go back to sleep’.
Diurnal
Part of the problem can be how long they are sleeping in the day, and when. If they sleep in the car on the way back from the creche, for example, it’s not surprising that they are not going to put their head back down on the pillow on arrival. Some nurseries impose a siesta, but maybe you can influence how long it is?
Miscellaneous
The creativity of children in finding a good excuse should not be underestimated. Recent examples that this researcher has encountered include ‘my pants are too tight’ (at 3 am), or ‘I can’t find my soft rabbit’ (at 1 am). The possibilities are almost limitless.
Routine
This is a solution, rather than a problem. Children are creatures of habit – if most nights you feed them round the same time, and then have an endgame routine – wash, teeth, read a book, lights out (for example) – this reduces the potential for conflict, and increases the possibility that they go to sleep contented and therefore do not wake up. The constituent parts of the routine vary with age, obviously, but putting in place a routine can be done from a very early age. The downside of this dependency on predictability is that if you allow them to pick up bad habits, it makes it hard to put it right. For young children, avoiding television, computer games, boisterous activity or other over stimulation at bedtime is always a good plan.
Another angle on this is predictable behaviour when dealing with a plea to attention. One possibility is the first time you go into them, you talk to them and reassure them. After that, you just go in and tuck them in but no talk, no hug, no matter how many times they call you. They soon get the message that there’s no point in calling you again. Another is – first time comfort, second time perfunctory, third time cross. For younger children, you have ‘controlled crying’ – leaving them for a set amount of time, then comforting them (normally without picking them up), leaving them again, etc until they get into the habit of sleeping through.
Despite all and any of these tactics, for more or less long periods of your life as a parent, none of it may work. You may just have to grit your teeth and wait for it to pass. If you find yourself really distressed through lack of sleep or the problem is ongoing, then see your GP or similar source of advice – specialist sleep clinics and the like exist for extreme case.

Herbal plant – Great Burdock

One of the important herbs from ancient times – Great Burdock

The herb Burdock’s root is a taproot of greater burdock plant, used as a vegetable and medicinal herb. The plant is a short biennial, which believed to be native to Northern Europe and Siberia. In Japan, popular as gobo, it is cultivated as a major root herb since ancient times. However, burdock grows as a wild, easy growing hardy plant almost in any parts of the planet.
This common weed was prized by the Celts, who cooked its roots for medicinal use. They considered burdock a detoxifying herb and consumed it freely to cleanse the internal system. They gave it to the elderly to treat ailments like arthritis and to teens to heal acne.

Folk herbalists consider dried burdock to be a diuretic, diaphoretic, and a blood purifying agent. Various parts are used to prevent baldness and to treat rheumatoid arthritis, skin infections, acne, boils, bites, eczema, herpes, impetigo, rashes, ringworm, sore throat, sciatica, poison ivy and poison oak, as a tonic, diuretic and mild laxative, to stimulate bile production and to induce sweating.
Once widely used in cleansing remedies, burdock is familiar for its hooked burrs, which readily attach themselves to clothing. This property is reflected in the herb’s botanical name, from the Greek arktos, or bear, suggesting rough-coated fruits, and lappa, to seize. Burdock was a traditional blood purifier, often combined in fold brews such as dandelion and burdock wine, and it was once popular for indigestion. In China, the seeds, niu bang zi, are used to dispel “wind and heat evils”; they also lower blood sugar levels.
Sometimes planted in Japan, where it has been improved by cultivation for its enlarged parsnip-like roots, which are eaten as a boiled vegetable. Burdock is a common European weed; was brought to America as a medicinal plant. It soon became widely scattered, because the burdock seeds attached themselves to colonists’ breeches, clothes and the fur of animals. Millspaugh wrote, “the herb is so rank that man, the jackass, and the caterpillar are the only animals that will eat it.”
-It grows well in fresh, worked soil rich in humus, and should be positioned in direct sunlight.
– Roots are used to treat throat infection.
– It is also used to treat skin infections like
-rashes
– boils
– bruises.
– burns.
– herpes.
– eczema
– acme
– ring worm
– insect bites
It’s leaves and seeds are crushed and used on
– bruises
– burns
– ulcer
– sores