Hungry owls: No one wants to use chemical pesticides to protect crops, and apple farmers in Japan don’t have to. That’s because a natural predator is available to help keep their orchards free of field voles. That predator is the Ural owl (Strix uralensis). These birds build nests in the hollows of trees near the orchards, and farmers even supply man-made structures to attract them. The night hunters do swift work of nabbing voles, which can do considerable damage to apple trees and cut into the profits of the farm.

Inked all over: Some people get a tattoo (or two) somewhere on their bodies, but Kerstin Tristan decided to get her whole body tattooed. The grandmother from Leipzig, Germany, started on her tattoo odyssey in 2015 when she got her first one. Now, her arms, legs, torso, hands, and feet are almost completely covered. The tattoos range from flowers to butterflies to women’s faces to leopard spots to strings of pearls. Tristan has spent, so far, about €30,000 on her body art, and she doesn’t regret it. She intends to keep filling the blank spots with more tattoos.

Mural mandate: A mural on the side of a building in Warsaw, Poland, helps clear the air of pollutants. Located near a busy metro station, the mural is made of special photocatalytic paint that lures pollutants from the air. The pollutants are then changed into harmless particles, which are washed away when it rains. The mural features flowers with smiling faces, with the foliage wrapped around tall buildings. The project was part of the City Forests campaign. Several other cities around the world are part of the movement, including Bogotá, Columbia; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Melbourne, Australia.

Cat lady: A woman who lives in Muscat, Oman, is a true animal lover. In fact, she loves animals so much that her home has become a shelter for homeless cats and dogs. Maryam al-Balushi didn’t always appreciate animals. Her affection for felines began in 2008 when her son brought home a Persian cat, which she grew to adore. She started taking pity on strays, and today she has nearly 500 cats and about a dozen dogs. It costs almost $8,000 per month for food and vet care, which at first she paid herself, but now donors help her with the bills. She hopes everyone will understand that animals need to be treated with compassion.

Countless cookies: Those looking for fancy cookies to wrap up and give to friends, or to devour themselves, need look no further than Lorena’s Sweets. The brand is the brainchild of Costa Rican confectioner, Lorena Rodriguez, whose collection has something for everyone. Rodriguez always loved baking cookies, and her husband convinced her to go into business. Now, she has many molds for a wide variety of shapes, which she ornately decorates with fondant. Buyers can order any shape, from a horse on a carousel to the Eiffel Tower to a grandfather clock. The options are almost limitless!

Caring for raccoons: There are dog whisperers and horse whisperers, and now Canada has its very own raccoon whisper. His name is James Blackwood, and his home is near the forest in the province of Nova Scotia. Back in 1999, his late wife, Jane, rescued an injured racoon, nursing it back to health and releasing it. The cute mammal returned for food, along with its babies. That was the beginning of the couple’s daily ritual of feeding the racoons. Before she died nearly 20 years ago, Jane asked James to keep caring for the raccoons, and he’s been doing it ever since, often posting videos on social media.

Bowling news: The sport of bowling will never be the same again! An entrepreneur from Southfield, Michigan (U.S.), has come up with an interesting idea: a mobile bowling alley. Terence Jackson Jr. calls his creation Luxury Strike Bowling. A two-lane bowling alley is built inside the trailer of a 53-foot (16-metre) semi-truck. The inside is decorated with colourful lights, a theatre screen, and elevated seating. The game played is “duckpin,” which employs shorter lanes and lighter weight balls than the five-pin or 10-pin varieties. The bowling-alley-on-wheels is available for parties and events.

Yellow tree: Needing to make a reservation to see a tree is unusual, but that is the case in China’s Shaanxi Province. At a temple in the Zhongnan Mountains stands a 1,400-year-old gingko biloba tree. The reason this specimen is so popular is the beautiful scene that ensues when it starts to lose its leaves. The leaves turn a brilliant yellow-gold, making them look as though they were painted by a giant artist’s brush. The fallen leaves surround the tree in a sea of yellow. The sight attracts so many tourists that, to avoid large crowds, people must reserve the day and time of their visit.

Slippery soap: A silky bar of scented soap is always nice to have in the shower, but a soap maker in Lebanon has taken that idea several steps further. The family-owned Bader Hassen & Sons factory in Lebanon, makes exclusive skincare products, but perhaps none more so than its Khan Al Saboun brand of soap. One expensive bar costs about $2,800 (USD), because it contains gold and diamond powder, along with olive oil, honey, essential oils, and fragrance.

Big fight: It must have been a whopper of an argument! An Italian man and his wife, who live in a town north of Milan, Italy, had a spat one night. The husband decided the best thing to do was to go for walk to “cool down.” While that’s often a good way to start the process of making up, the man took his walk many steps further, literally! He kept going for about 420 kilometres (261 mi.)! His flight from the fight lasted about a week, during which time he received food from strangers. His wife had reported him missing, and the police finally caught up with him.

Pricey pigeon: A bird lover might buy a parrot or a finch for company, but few will spend over a million dollars for a feathered friend. That actually happened in Belgium, although the bird in question is not a pet. It’s a racing pigeon named New Kim and was owned by the Van De Wouwer family. The respected breeder put New Kim up for auction, and to everyone’s surprise, a bidding war took place before New Kim sold for €1.6 million. Racing pigeons are valuable, both as breeding birds and as racers. In a race, the pigeons are released at a measured distance from their homes. The winner is the first one to return home.

Leafy talent: Lito, an artist in Japan who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has found the perfect way to focus his active mind. He carves incredibly intricate scenes into tree leaves, spending many hours on each one. Lito imagines playful scenes and then sets out to make them. For example, one portrays an anteater sticking its long tongue into an anthill to find a treat. Another features a rhinoceros brushing its baby’s teeth. Lito has carved a herd of sheep jumping over a fence and a family of fish swimming amongst seaweed, and many more! His work has appeared on social media.

Climb for salt: A mountain goat that lives in the European Alps is called the Alpine ibex. These amazing animals can climb exceptionally steep inclines because their special hooves allow them to grip. They even climb up to the top of very high and extremely steep dams. For example, they’ve been seen climbing dams in Italy, including the Cingino Dam in the Piedmont region and the Barbellino Dam in Lombardy. The reason these goats are driven to scamper up these structures is because the cement at the top contains salt, which is important to their diet.

Lost and found: A Chinese family was overjoyed when their lost dog, Dou Dou, arrived on their doorstep after being missing for 26 days. The family had accidentally left Dou Dou behind at a gas station when they were driving back to their home in Hangzhou after visiting relatives. The next day, they went back to the station, which is 60 kilometres (37 mi.) from their home. With no sign of Dou Dou, the family could only hope that a kind person had rescued him. When the family pet reappeared, he was so skinny that they barely recognized him. But with loving care, they nursed him back to health.

Wrinkled fender: Driving a new car off the lot is exciting. Most people scrimp and save if they plan to buy a brand-new vehicle from a dealership. That was probably the case for a man in India as he drove his car out of the lot, looking forward to showing it off. Unfortunately, he seemed to know more about accelerators than about brakes because he drove the white, four-door Kia Carnival right into a wall. The lack of driving finesse caused the airbags to deploy and the front end to buckle. The only good thing about the situation is that no one was hurt.

Big gator: Those who enjoy the sport of golf in the state of Florida (U.S.), know that spotting alligators on the fairways is not unusual. The reptiles are common in that state, and everyone knows to stay clear of them if they pop up from a pond to lie in the sun. However, onlookers were quite startled when an outrageously large specimen appeared on the Valencia Golf and Country Club in Naples. It looked like it belonged in a movie about prehistoric creatures! Footage of the beast was taken by Tyler Stolting, a golf pro at the club.

Hot spot: In a town in the Outback of South Australia, people choose to live underground. The town of Coober Pedy, known for the mining of opal, is a very hot place to be. Many of the town’s inhabitants find living underground to be a cooler alternative to the blazing sun on the surface, so they use old mines or dig new spots for underground houses. People can shop, visit a library, or stay at a hotel - all underground. The treeless environment of the area has attracted moviemakers of such films as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Red Planet, which were filmed there.

Tall forest: In downtown Milan, Italy, two apartment buildings tower over the neighbourhood. Called Bosco Verticale, they are a rare site. One stands 80 metres (262 ft.) high and the other stands 112 metres (368 ft.) high. Both are completely covered in vegetation, including 800 trees, 15,000 perennials, and 5,000 shrubs. This vertical forest was designed with a purpose: to regulate temperature and humidity in the buildings, while attracting birds and butterflies. Residents feel like they live in a rural area, instead of in the middle of a big city. The vegetation is carefully pruned each year, and watering is done automatically.

Inside and out: A home in Novaya Razvodnaya, near Irkutsk, Russia, looks quite decidedly modern on the outside. But this house’s exterior camouflages a surprising interior. On the outside, the five-bedroom home, with its two-car garage, swimming pool, and plate glass windows, appears to be a 21st-century structure. On the inside, however, visitors are greeted with décor that seems to belong in a Baroque castle: flowered carpets, chandeliers, gilded ceilings, ornate furniture, and wrought-iron railings. Any fan of the Baroque era will like this place.

Eyeful of art: Tal Peleg, an Israeli artist known as Scarlet Moon, loves to make eyes into works of art. She always enjoyed painting and drawing, and she studied makeup artistry and visual communications. With this education, she decided to use her talents to create mini art pieces in the space around her eyes. She succeeded and has completed many intricate works. Using makeup and tiny brushes, she’ll turn her eyebrow into a cat’s tail, showing the cat playing with a ball of yarn. Blue eye shadow might become a lake where ducks swim, or her eyelid might become the base of a princess’s gown.

Paint the town: On the Greek island of Chios, located in the Aegean Sea east of Athens, is the town of Pyrgi. This lively place has fewer than 1,200 inhabitants. What makes it special is that its buildings are painted with geometric designs and patterns, and they are all unique. A walk through the town’s streets leaves visitors in awe at the grey and white checkerboard murals, blue and gold circles, and geometric flowers flowing out of vases. All are painted with bold strokes and are found on walls, archways, and doors. The nickname for Pyrgi is “painted village.”

Puzzle solved: An English comedy writer decided to use extra time available during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to take on a unique challenge: solve a literary puzzle by putting in order the pages of a novel called Cain’s Jawbone. John Finnemore accomplished the task, and he is only the third person to do it since the puzzle was created in 1934. The puzzle has 100 cards, each one of which is one page of the murder-mystery novel. The pages must be arranged in the correct order. To solve the puzzle, Finnemore had to research such obscure topics as 1930s licensing laws in London and the history of prisons.

Loud music: It’s lucky that Dee Gallant, who lives on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, is a fan of the music of Metallica, the hard rock band. That’s because she used it to scare off a cougar who was stalking her and her dog, Murphy, when they were out for their daily walk. The feline slowly approached Gallant and the dog. Disconcerted, Gallant tried to act big by waving her arms and yelling, but that didn’t deter the wild animal. So she pulled out her cell phone and blasted Metallica’s “Don’t Tread on Me,” a guitar-screeching, drum-battering song. The cat backed away and took off.

Yummy treat: The people of Spain and Latin America know about good street food. Those are places where delicious treats, known as churros, are sold by street vendors far and wide. No one will lose weight eating these long, crispy chunks of dough. They are made from yeast dough, covered with sugar, and deep fried. They can be eaten with coffee for breakfast, or some people like them for dessert. Churros from Seville, Spain, are known for their delicate lightness, while they might be made with dulce de leche in Mexico. In Uruguay, they are often filled with cheese.