Author: Ms. R.

On Governors Island, just a five-minute ferry ride from Manhattan, art professor Sam Van Aken plots his fantasy orchard. He plans on opening a public park with 50 blossoming trees that bloom into a mosaic of pinks, reds, purples, and whites. Come summer and fall, after the flowers have faded, visitors will be able to leisurely pick among 200 rare varieties of peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, and apples. Van Aken is a master at grafting, an agricultural practice that……

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Situated in the countryside around Baldernock, the Auld Wives Lifts are a local legend. Nobody is quite sure (or can agree) on what they are, what they were for, or how they got there. The an ancient configuration of three large stones, one balanced on top of the other two, is located in a natural amphitheater on a heather-covered moorland called Craigmaddie Muir about a mile due north (and slightly east) of the parish of Baldernock. As well as……

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The Chapada Diamantina (Diamond Highlands), in the state of Bahia, is more than 250 miles from Salvador. It may not be near the ocean, but there is water everywhere, thanks to its altitude. Deep, green canyons winds between spectacular rock formations. Just east of the national park, in the drier and desolate Nova Redenção, there’s magic hidden underground. Discovered in 1920 during a quest for diamonds in the region, the Poço Azul or Gruta Azul (also known as the……

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The Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch railway, or the Nickey Line as it is generally known, was a seven-mile-long railway built in 1877 to connect the villages between the West Coast Main Line, which ran north to Birmingham and Manchester, and the Midland Main Line, which ran north to Leicester and Sheffield. The etymology surrounding the term “Nickey Line” is obscure, and there are many competing theories as to how the name originated. The line was initially used mostly……

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If Fairhaven, Massachusetts, has a resident philanthropist, it’s Henry Huttleston Rogers. Rogers, who made a fortune in oil refining, began donating buildings to his hometown in 1885, including an elementary school, a public library, and the sprawling campus of Fairhaven High School. Rogers had the majestic school built in 1905 with an eye toward the future. The building, with its own electric generation plant, a home economics kitchen, facilities for agricultural studies, and the first indoor basketball court in……

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The town of Greccio, nine miles from Rieti in the region of Sabina, northeast of Rome, is twinned with the city of Bethlehem for a very special reason: In 1223 Saint Francis decided to enact there the first living nativity scene in the history of Christianity. The event is also depicted in the cycle of frescoes on the life of Saint Francis attributed to Giotto in the Basilica of Assisi. Legend has it that the only character who was……

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Muzej Šibica (Museum of Matches) is a unique museum located in Sremski Karlovci and has a collection of 40,000 matchboxes from all over the world. Jasna Novak, late actress, started collecting the matchboxes in the 1950s, but her stepdaughter Jovana Popović Benišek expanded the collection and opened the museum in 2014. The oldest boxes are from Japan, 170 years old. Museum has an ambition to become a cultural center, to have more art related exhibitions, concerts, and book nights. …

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Built in 1962 by Rada Janjatov, a project engineer, the bridge connected two shores in Zrenjanin for 23 years, until in 1985, when city authorities decided to change the flow of the River Begej. There was a plan in 2015 to demolish the bridge, but nothing happened and the bridge remains as the obscure symbol of the city. Most Na Suvom is closed for walking, as it is in ruins and unsafe, but it has attracted graffiti art and……

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Park Maketa is a miniature theme park with models of famous Serbian monasteries and churches, located in Despotovac. This region is well known for having many monasteries, like Manasija, which is only a few miles away. A miniature Manasija is found there, in addition to models of Hilandar, Studenica, Mileševa, Gračanica, and many others. All miniature buildings are built in a 1:17 scale, with a short history and description. The creator says it takes him around two months to build……

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