Nature
In the 1600s a Benedictine monk called Dom Perignon observed that wooden stoppers wrapped in oil-soaked rags used to seal his bottles of sparkling wine often popped out, and so he replaced them with the conical pieces of cork to seal his bottles of sparkling wine.
Cork soon become essential for wine bottling. The world's first cork stopper factory opened in around 1750, in Anguine (Spain).
The best cork comes from Portugal, and the country is the world's leading cork producer.
The bark of mature cork trees is harvested just once every nine years. Cork trees are not regarded mature enough for bark harvesting until they are at least 25 years old, and the bark itself is not suitable for wine corks until the third harvest. A cork tree will yield 13 to 18 useful harvests in its lifetime.
The word kangaroo derived from the Australian Aboriginal word "gangurru" referring to the Grey Kangaroo. The name was first recorded as kangaru by botanist Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage in 1768–1771.
The belief that kangaroo means "I don't understand" (or "I don't know") is a popular myth that is also applied to some other Aboriginal-sounding Australian words.
Kangaroos feed on shrubs, grasses, leaves and herbs and usually graze in groups called mobs in the cool of the night, mornings and evenings. The life expectancy of a kangaroo is about 18 years.
Eastern grey kangaroos can leap up to nine meters in a single bound and hop as fast as 20–25 km per hour (13–16 mph). Kangaroos are also apt swimmers.
The word “coffee” originated from Arabic “qahwah”, probably from the Kaffa region of Ethiopia, a home of the plant.
The first coffeehouses were opened in Istanbul in 1554. Coffee became available in England in the mid-17th century, and by 1675 England had more than 3,000 coffeehouses.
Today coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, after petroleum (according to TechnoServe), and about third of all the world’s coffee is produced in Brazil. The United States is the largest market for coffee, while Finland consumes the most coffee per capita, an average of four to five cups a day.
There are two main species of the coffee plant: Arabica, which is more susceptible to diseases, and Robusta, which contains about twice as much caffeine, and is used in almost all instant coffee products.
Amaryllis — pride, pastoral poetry
Aster — symbol of love, daintiness
Azalea — take care of yourself for me, temperance, fragile passion, chinese symbol of womanhood, fragility
Bay Leaf — strength, I change but in death
Buttercup — childishness, cheerfulness
Cactus — endurance
Camellia — admiration, perfection, good luck gift to a man
Chamomile — patience, attracts wealth
Daisy — innocence, loyal love, faith, cheer, simplicity
Dandelion— faithfulness, devotion, happiness, wishes come true
Bonsai, developed by the Japanese more than a thousand years ago, is derived from the Chinese practice of growing miniature plants.
A bonsai is not a genetically dwarfed plant, and one can turn almost any tree or shrub into a bonsai by skilled seasonal trimming of new growth, periodic root pruning and repotting. Training bonsai is an ongoing process.
Species which are used more commonly for bonsai and that adapt quite well are evergreens such as Pine, Cypress, Camellia, Azalea, Pomegranate, Holly, Serissa, Fig and Cedar, and deciduous trees such as Cherry, Maple, Zelkova and Beech.
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