分类必应美图下的文章

德文郡南海岸的索尔科姆港，英国 Salcombe Harbour on the south coast of Devon, England (© Devon and Cornwall Photography/Getty Images)

Sandcastles and sailing boats

Now here's a location to add to your bucket (and spade) list. Tucked away on the south coast of Devon, Salcombe is one of England's iconic seaside towns, renowned for its picture-postcard harbour, sun-soaked beaches, rolling hills and breathtaking coastal views. With its estuary location, Salcombe is also a paradise for water sports and famous sailing destination. If you want to keep your feet dry, there are plenty of independent shops to browse and beachside cafes to visit, where you can sit back and relax with a delightful Devon cream tea, a speciality in this part of the world. At this time of year, the town's atmosphere is buzzing as the winter population of about 2,000 swells to more than 10 times that amount in summer months, when tourists flock here for the fairs, regattas and festivals. You might even spot a famous face or two – Salcombe's celebrity residents include the likes of Kate Bush and members of Led Zeppelin.

特兰西瓦尼亚的川斯发格拉山公路，罗马尼亚 The Transfăgărășan in Transylvania, Romania (© Calin Stan/Shutterstock)

Keep calm and drive on (slowly)

The Transfăgărășan in Romania is open for business. Also known as the DN7 highway, the road cuts through the Fagaras Mountains, offering stunning views of waterfalls, glacial lakes, and lush valleys—plus steep drop-offs and hairpin turns to amp up the drama. Back in 2009, Jeremy Clarkson, co-host of the British TV show 'Top Gear,' called this twisty route the 'best road in the world,' which helped turn it into a major tourist draw. The Transfăgărășan reaches elevations just shy of 6,700 feet and has more tunnels and viaducts in its 55 miles than any other road in this mountainous country. But proceed with caution. The speed limit is a sensible 25 mph. And watch out for herds of sheep that use it as a path to greener pastures, and don't mind blocking traffic as they amble there.

2017年8月21日的一组日食镜头 Solar eclipse sequence from August 21, 2017 (© Lindsay Daniels/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Sequential images of a total solar eclipse

A total solar eclipse is visible today across northern Chile and Argentina. To those lucky observers in South America, this awesome event will look much as it does in our homepage image today, which is a composite of images taken during the Great American Eclipse of 2018.

Just how does the moon perfectly blot out the sun? Through an amazing coincidence, the sun is both 400 times larger than the moon, and also 400 times further away. Therefore, periodically, when the sun, moon, and Earth are aligned just right, the moon can perfectly obscure the sun as seen from the surface of Earth in a total eclipse. But, unlike the sun, the moon is not a smooth sphere; therefore, in the last few moments before the eclipse reaches totality, we see Baily's Beads. In 1836, English astronomer Francis Baily was the first to explain that the phenomenon is created by sunlight passing between the mountains and through the canyons of the moon. Some folks also refer to it as the diamond ring effect. But whatever you call it, it's undeniably brilliant.

For Canada Day, canoers in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada © Christopher Kimmel/Aurora Photos

It's Canada's national day

For Canada Day, we're dipping our paddles in Still Creek, a long gentle stream in British Columbia. The canoe has long been associated with Canada's national history, linked with early explorers, fur traders, and colonists who ventured out into the wilderness of the great north. An image of a canoe even appeared on early versions of Canada's silver dollar, a coin which was later replaced by the ‘loonie,' so named for the depiction of a common loon on one side.

Canada Day, celebrated on July 1, commemorates the date in 1867 when Canada was recognized as a self-governing country under the British empire. It's a national holiday for Canadians, which makes it a perfect day to take out the canoe. While gliding across the water, consider humming a few bars of the national anthem, ‘O Canada.' Paddle on, Canadians!

【香港回归22周年】 (© ViewStock/Getty Images)

蒙特勒和日内瓦湖，瑞士 Montreux and Lake Geneva in Switzerland (© Westend61/Getty Images)

Montreux, Switzerland, and all that jazz

We're looking at Lake Geneva and Montreux, Switzerland, where the Montreux Jazz Festival begins today. Despite its name, the festival isn't just about jazz. It highlights different styles of music across multiple venues over two weeks. This year's lineup includes three farewell-tour stops (Elton John, Anita Baker, Joan Baez) and big names in jazz (Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin), as well as young artists representing a variety of genres. The festival began in 1967 at the original Montreux Casino, which famously burned down during a December 1971 Frank Zappa performance. The fire was memorialized by Deep Purple in their hit 'Smoke on the Water.' A monument commemorating the band and their song can be found next to the rebuilt casino.

印度活根桥 Living root bridge in India (© dhritipurna/Shutterstock)

The roots of invention

Living root bridges like this can be found in the tropical rainforests of Meghalaya, a state in northeast India, which is among the wettest places on Earth. The gentle waterways that flow through the region's valleys become gushing torrents during the summer monsoon season and will wash away traditional bamboo bridges. So, generations of indigenous Khasi people have devised a way of building root bridges by shaping living trees.

It works like this: Rubber fig trees are planted or located on opposite riverbanks. As the trees' above-ground roots grow, the Khasi will guide them across the water, sometimes with the support of temporary scaffolding, like bamboo. After years of patient tending, the roots will eventually join and take hold of each other, forming a living suspension bridge that provides safe passage over the swollen rivers. The innovation has proved critical to the Khasi people. In this environment, bridges made from harvested materials would quickly rot and fall apart, leaving villages cut off and isolated. Building a living root bridge requires patience, though. It takes about 15 to 30 years to grow one sturdy enough to support humans. But investment pays off. As these bridges age, they get stronger. Some are 100 feet long and can hold over 50 people.

格拉斯顿伯里托尔和圣迈克尔塔，英格兰 Glastonbury Tor and St Michael's Tower in England for the start of the Glastonbury Festival (© Spraggon Photography/Getty Images Plus)

Get amped for Glastonbury

Greetings from Glastonbury Tor and St. Michael's Tower in Somerset county of southwest England. The tor (a Celtic word for an isolated hill) is often mentioned in Celtic mythology, and some believe it to be the site of Avalon, a mythical island central to legends of King Arthur. Glastonbury Tor has other enduring spiritual associations as well, particularly to various neopagan beliefs. Archaeological evidence suggests that several buildings have been constructed at the top of the hill over many centuries, but all that remains today is the roofless tower of St. Michael’s Church, built in the 1300s.

Glastonbury Tor may dominate the surrounding coastal plain, but it isn't visible from the nearby Glastonbury Festival, which begins today and runs through Sunday, June 30. Since 1970, music fans have turned the Glastonbury area into an outdoor bacchanalian summer retreat as they converge on the area to watch some of the world's most popular pop and rock musicians perform live at the festival. Most summers, the farmland around the village of Pilton—including festival-creator Michael Eavis' Worthy Farm—is transformed into the largest greenfield festival in the world, with more than 100,000 people attending and camping in the area. In an homage to the area’s most enduring feature, the festival's official artwork this year is a representation of Glastonbury Tor and its tower under a full moon, surrounded by red clouds.

Sutherland Falls in Fiordland National Park

Sutherland Falls spills over the side of Lake Quill in the jagged, glacier-carved landscape of Fiordland National Park on New Zealand's South Island. For years, it was believed to be the tallest waterfall in the world, thanks in part to a rough estimate by Scottish explorer Donald Sutherland, the first European to see the falls. Later, more scientific surveys proved this estimate to be significantly inflated, but Sutherland Falls is still 1,900 feet tall, which is plenty high in our book.

It's probably pretty cold out in the Fiordland wilderness today, as the Southern Hemisphere is in the midst of winter. While the Northern Hemisphere has tilted toward the sun, giving us the long, warm days of summer, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away, so the days are short and nights are cold.

吕宋岛上的萤火虫环绕着榄仁树，菲律宾南甘马粦省 Fireflies surround a sea almond tree in Camarines Sur, Luzon, Philippines (© Jurgen Freund/Minden Pictures)

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