Think of pollen as a living cloud, cast to the winds by trees and grasses, and fragrant blooms. A single pine tree may produce more than 320 billion pollen grains over a period of 50 years.

Many plants are pollinated by animals, such as bees, birds, or bats. Grasses and trees are wind pollinated and receive huge amounts.

For those who suffer from hay fever ragweed is the biggest problem followed by grasses. Tree pollens from oak and cedar also cause suffering. When one moves away from the allergic plant to another area the body can reset itself and become allergic to plants of the new location .Although many medications can control symptoms the truth remains that at present no cure exists.

The bee forages among blossoms for nectar and pollen which is the main protein source for growing larvae. The pollen brushes off on the bee-s body hairs. This pollen is combed and scraped of pollen and it is put in a pouch on their hind legs. When he arrives at the hive the pollen is packed into the comb cells to feed larvae. Over 80,000 tons of pollen is gathered by bees in a year’s time in the United States. As the bee continues from flower to flower the pollen gets brushed onto the stigma causing fertilization of the flower.

If bees aren’t available another method to polonaise fruit trees is to purchase pollen that has been gathered from trees and then spray it on the trees by a tractor sprayer or by plane.

Pollen plays the critical role of ensuring that grasses yield grain, trees bear fruit, and life continues in full flower.

The home to two to three thousand giant tortoises is in the Galapagos Islands which are 600 miles west of South America. Males weigh 500 to 600 pounds and the females are in the 300 pound range. Ancestors of these heavy creatures have slowly moved through history for hundreds or thousands of years. These giants on this island may live up to 150 years.

Perhaps their secret to longevity is the way they spend their days. By eight in the morning they finally wake up and bask in the sun for about an hour. The rest of the day is spent meandering around within a few hundred yards in search of food. He retires for the night at 5 p.m. 16 hours of the day is consumed in sleep.

This lackadaisical life style is seldom interrupted unless if it is for mating. The male spots the female by smelling her scent. His courtship methods is to intimidate her. First he rams her at the front of her shell with his 500 to 600 pound body. He then nips at her exposed legs. His method is to get her to draw in her legs and show she will become immobilized and make the mating easier for him.

The female forms a nest by excavating a cavity to deposit her eggs. She lays nine eggs. After they are laid she covers up the cavity so the eggs can hatch

Ecuador owns the Galapagos islands. The tortoises are protected because the islands are a national park. Tortoises are protected from being captured or being hunted and it is illegal for an endangered species to be exported except for scientific research or exchange.

The tango dance is all about emotion. The lyrics may sing of losing love and trust or failure or the passing of time. The South American themes in urban life of poverty and misery or one may hear uplifting lyrics of better times. Tango’s home is in Uruguay, Argentina and is danced and felt anywhere two souls meet for this emotionally charged dance.

The tango is not meant to bring out the feminist side of the woman but the feeling of the woman in mutual surrender. She follows as he rhythmically pushes forward and backward facing him and facing away from him. Modern girls may want independence but when dancing the tango it is this feeling of surrender of the woman that makes the dance so romantic.

Tango began during Argentina’s economic boom at the turn of the century. Its second era began in the 40’s and 50’s. There were many tango halls and orchestras. Whether it was the music or the dance that was so captivating it was the orchestras that caused this revival of the tango.

New compositions and new style as well as the traditional styles bring the tango to the present with new devotees embracing the tango as something new and exciting. The tango is the music, the dance and more importantly the romantic emotional movements of man and woman.

Cuba is more than the image of Fidel Castro and his cigars. Its 750 miles encompasses the greatest diversity of life and panoramic landscapes s in all of the West Indies. Cuba is preserved not only by its lack of development but also by a people committed to conversation.

In one swamp resides more than 70,000 Caribbean flamingos and countless chicks. Without question this is the largest enclave of flamingos in the Western Hemisphere. This is only one of the 263 protected areas which cover nearly 22 percent of Cubas territory.

The world’s largest known nesting congregation of crocodiles, an endangered species, resides in another Wildlife Refuge At a population of 3,000, this is the largest gathering of this species.. In another reserve resides the world’s smallest frog which can fit on the tip of a finger. More than 900 endemic species inhabit this area ranging from a cloud forest to a coral reef.

Hundreds of thousands of three foot flamingos live around East Africa’s alkaline soda lakes. Of the five species of this hot pink bird these three footers are the smallest. The volcanic soil beneath these lakes leaches out bicarbonate of soda. These warm lakes are the perfect environment for the growth of spirulina algae which is the staple of these little flamingos.

Flamingos have a unique way of scooping up this algae. They invert their head so that the bottom of the bill is facing the sky. By moving its head from side to side with its beak open he is able to pump water in his beak using his thick tongue. The algae is then extracted by using hair-like projections. The excess water is pushed out and feeding has been completed. 35 tons a day of this algae can be eaten by a flock of 100,000 little flamingos. The flamingos determine when there is not enough algae to sustain them. When this happens the sky is dotted in pink as they fly to the next fertile lake.,

The lakes are inhospitable to fish and have little vegetation because its fresh water percolates out at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Because there is less competition for resources the flamingo population in this area soars to as many as four million.

Because there aren’t any fish in these lakes, the fish eagle has had to adapt to his environment by preying on flamingos. Storks and jackals also prey on these pink birds.

For 150 million years our planets ancient mariners have been the sea turtles. Currently there are eight species and each one once abundant are threatened or in some level of endangerment. Indifference of humankind as well has hunting and development have caused this alarm that some of these turtle species may not survive.

These eight species are killed for meat and leather, their eggs are taken for food and aphrodisiacs. Their nesting sites are eliminated by development. They are poisoned by pollution, strangled by trash and drowned by fish line and net and run over by pleasure boats.

All sea turtles must leave their watery world and come to shore to lay eggs. In one nesting season 20 to 30 million eggs might be laid. Assuming no human interference only 4 to 8 percent will hatch. However, throughout South America egg poaching is a living for so many. A dozen eggs can bring more than two dollars a dozen. Bars purchase turtles eggs and serve them raw because the patrons believe they make one stronger.

In Costa Rica, poachers can turn the beach into a green turtle slaughterhouse. The beach can be riddled with bones with no turtle surviving the mass genocide. The green turtle’s meat is so delicious perhaps because it is a vegetarian. A creature tasting this good and one so easy to catch once on shore to deposit her eggs and one that returns every year at the same time has little chance at the hands of poachers.

Many conservation programs are now in practice throughout the world with some limited success. But the problem is so vast and poachers so inventive that success moves ever so slowly.

The Basques are truly Europe’s first family. They were in the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains before the Indo-European tribes inhabited Europe. We know the Basques are distinct and not a derivative of any other in Europe because of genetic studies and blood-typing. There language corroborates this conclusion in that it is 5,000 years old and is linguistically like no other language.

The Basque homeland is in a contiguous geographical area that is partly in Spain and also in France. It borders on the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic. This Basque heartland of 2,800 miles is in a heavenly area of green slopes, chestnut forests, villages on hillsides and a few lively cities.

Just above the sea on the slopes on the hillsides that hug the ocean are the vines that produce a wine the Basques name txakolina. It is a white grape wine with a hint of a about 15 percent red grapes that give it a character not to be rivaled by any other culture.

Families make this wine mostly in small batches in their cellars but the wine can be found in restaurants of the city of Vitoria Gasteiz, which is Basque capital.

With their territory bordering the sea is it any wonder that their sea chantey states:

By myself I dream
Alone I come and go
Like the waves of the sea….

For centuries Basques have looked to the sea. Basques sailed with Magellan on his first trip around the world and there were Basque sailors with Columbus.

Ever since Neolithic times Basque shepherds have tended their summer flocks beneath the Aitzkorri Range that shields them from the chilly north winds.

The Basques invented Jai alai. In the 1600’s they embellished the game of handball by adding a bullet-like velocity and hook shaped baskets. Presently Jai alai is played throughout the world.

This unique ancient culture has survived keeping its traditions and its unique language without a country and in spite of the countless changes during these 5,000 years.

Other France and Spain Links:

Car Hire Montpellier Airport
Car Hire Cannes Airport
Car Hire Cherbourg Airport
Car Hire Carcassonne Airport
Car Hire Chamonix
Car Hire Paris
Car Hire Bordeaux

Car Hire Madeira
Car Hire Malaga Airport

Our national past time may not be baseball but instead be squirrel watching. So many of us observe them and at parks feed them. The eastern gray squirrel is a small mammal with the often observed and loved skill of gnawing. They belong to the order Rodentia which is from the Latin word rodere, which means “to gnaw”.

Fossil records of about 3.5 million years show records of the ancestors of the gray squirrel as well as their hundred of cousins flung around the world. flying squirrel, fox squirrels, red squirrels, Persian squirrels, pine squirrels and tassel-eared squirrels.

That bushy tail of the gray which reminds one of a question mark makes up more than half the size of this 18″ mammal. Squirrel observers may believe they know the males from the females but actually they are both between 12 and 26 inches in length and of the same color They make their nests in the hollow part of atree or on a branch or wedged in the fork of a tree.

Females have two litters one between February and April and another in mid summer. Pregnancy of only 40 to 44 days gives three to five newborn who are nursed for as long as ten weeks. In captivity squirrels live up to 20 years but their life span in the wild is cut drastically short to only one year because they have countless prey including dogs, red-tailed hawks, crows, weasels, owls, foxes, raccoons, cats (if you are a cat owner then you should check out Frontline for cats), cars and their greatest threat humans who have a penchant for shooting them.

Any squirrel observer has seen the mating chases of them spinning around tree trunks, and scampering together around the yard. When those hormones kick in they’ll chase around, across and over most anything. A fragrant hormone from the female scents the air when she goes into estrus. That waltz and the undulating movements are caused when the male sniffs around the private parts of a female.

She then coyly moves a step or two away which appears to be a waltz He sniffs even the grass where she sat. He sniffs her shadow and she dances away. Finally he moves in close for an embrace and like a dancer grabs her around the middle. She moves her tail to accommodate him and they mate. But this happens only if she allows him access.

It’s a university where students generally aren’t required to attend lectures, don’t receive grades, seldom study anything outside their chosen subject and take just three sets of exams during the course of their college careers. One exam to get in and two exams to get out.

Outsiders have been puzzled (puzzle games) and minds have been trained for over 800 years at the Oxford University. When one walks down the curving and broad High Street which is one of the most beautiful in England one follows the footsteps of Samuel Johnson, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, Jonathan Swift, Roger Bacon, Oscar Wilde, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, Margaret Thatcher and even Bill Clinton.

Of course as one would expect Oxford is more than a seat of learning of so many illustrious alumni. It is a university that is comprised of dozens of colleges and museums, houses, gardens, libraries, and churches.

More or less it has been evolving since the 12th century when scholars began gathering in Oxford. The university was founded due to a decree of King Henry I that scholars in holy orders were forbidden to study in Paris.

This evolution is most apparent when one visits the botanic gardens founded in 1621. Its specialization is medicinal plants with over 8.000 species representing 90 per cent of the world’s plant families.

The Bodelian Library, founded in the 15th century is one of the oldest and largest libraries in Europe. The library is immense with over 6.5 million volumes and over two miles of new shelving is required per year. As one might imagine the library is housed in several buildings. Readers must request a book at the central desk and wait for runners to finally deliver it in up to two hours time.

Another benefit to attending Oxford University is the access to many excellent doctors.  Find a cardiologist in Liverpool or cosmetic dentist Manchester.  There are many options available.

Nothing at Oxford is quite like any other university experience anywhere else. With more rules and traditions than one can imagine there is no equal to Oxford University.

In Herman Melville’s epic, Moby Dick, the sperm whale is of cunning, malice and great ferocity. Current research discounts this whale tale. Sperm whales are very timid so much so that a harmless fur seal can scare of a whole school of them.

In the days of Herman Melville’s epic, whalers would strain their eyes at the horizon, to watch for the blow of a giant sperm whale. Now we hear sperms long before we see them. One listens to the telltale click click of a whale by hunting its sound with sonar. If the intense pattern is like radio static it may be the sound of many whales.

The sperms live in schools of between 10 to 15 female adults and their calves, with most of them genetically related This is a strongly cooperative society in which the calves are raised communally. These females are bonded for life and rarely stray from their breeding grounds.

Contrarily males live a nomadic and solitary life. They leave their mothers at about six and form bachelor schools that are loosely knit. The largest of these bulls are the size of Moby Dick nearly 60 feet long and weighing in as much as 60 tons. It is assumed that the bulls may isolate themselves in order to satisfy their insatiable hunger with a minimum of competition.

The language of these sperms is the subject of endless study. A five click coda is like a hello. Thee are as many as 23 distinct codas to be translated.

When the bulls arrive it sounds like a steel door being slammed. It is a clack and in sperm language deciphering is called a Big Click. This sound is assumed to attract females and intimidate other males at the same time. Bull whales are not monogamous but rove singly among families of females. They may spend as little as an hour with each female as they search for receptive mates.

When the bull whale comes to the breeding grounds whale and whale lovers can be ecstatic since there has been a shortage of adult males due to hunting of the great male sperms.