Villa Garzoni

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The Villa Garzoni is in Collodi, Tuscany, Italy. The gardens originated in the 17th Century to grace the castle residence of the Garzoni family. The more modern Villa can be seen on the hillside.
The gardens are world famous for their water features making full use of the steep hillside to drive various fountains and a cascade down a water staircase to the lower level. Unfortunately when I visited and took these photographs last year, the main cascade was not functioning but their were plenty other water features. One such is featured here.

Hug a Baobab Tree

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Hugging a Baobab Tree means an embrace with often over a thousand years of history. These strange ‘upside down trees’, as they are often called because their branch structure looks more like that of tree roots, are particularly a feature of parts of Tanzania.
I photographed this very old Baobab in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. It bears the scars of generations of elephant tusks, in its bark, which is so thick as to be untroubled by the attentions of generations of elephants, unlike other indigenous trees.