Stopping to smell the roses along the road of life is great in principle, but not always terribly practical when you get right down to it. Who has time these days?
Honestly, if you have a curious mind, you’re going to smell those roses when you see them — you’ll make the time. And if you don’t, well, hopefully you’re enjoying life in some other way.
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For the rest of us, there’s the internet, a wonderful repository of living vicariously through the weird and interesting things other people encounter and share.
The one positive thing about freezing rain is that it creates some attractive scenery.
And apparently the odd keepsake comes from freezing rain, too — if I managed to get that off my car intact, I’d take a picture.
Incorporating a historically significant building into a new space doesn’t usually end up quite so beautifully.
But this building in Valparaiso, Chile, certainly bucked the trend, because it’s a marvel.
Raking leaves has to be the worst part of autumn — depending on how you approach it, of course.
If you decided you want to rake with a more artistic purpose, you can create something as memorable as this.
There’s a little bit of science on display inside this soap dispenser, causing a weird, gloopy scene.
There’s moisturizer mixed in with the soap, and of course the fat-rich moisturizer will rise above the slippery soap.
Strangely, this tree is having an odd reaction to autumn, with a patch of leaves directly under a streetlight refusing to fall.
Quite possibly the streetlight has fooled the leaves into thinking it’s not quite time to drop.
It doesn’t take much to figure out where this globe is from.
There’s a spot clearly worn down from all the fingers of people pointing to their home state, Arkansas, removing it almost completely from the map.
I don’t know what natural forces were at work when they made this rock that so clearly resembles an avocado inside.
Or an extremely hard-boiled egg, if you prefer. Either way, not what you want for breakfast, but still fascinating.
Have you ever seen an egg on its own, with an individual carton?
This seems like the way you’d package an egg from a golden goose, only with less silk.
Seen at a bazaar in Tehran, this seller of colored pencils must have some incredible familiarity with his wares.
I mean, could anybody else find what they need when they need it in that stall?
Life imitates art, even in a vending machine, as this Clif bar hangs perilously from its slot.
Actually, the odds of this are pretty high with every vending machine I’ve ever used and lost money to.
You have to love when the boredom hits and turns into people making their own fun, like the custodians at this building clearly did.
Sticking their wet floor pylons over floor lights is both fun and safe as it makes them even more visible.
The clean-up crew will need their heavy duty machinery and lots of patience after a 500+ year-old oak tree lost a limb.
That person next to it is 5’10”, just for scale’s sake. And it’s fortunate he wasn’t underneath it when the limb gave way!
This tree, on the other hand, is having a much more successful autumn.
A Japanese maple, its dropped leaves have fittingly made a Japanese flag with the snow providing a white backdrop.
Credit some perfect timing for this pic, in which the drinks on the table appear to be defying gravity.
It just so happened that someone knocked the table a fraction of a second earlier, sending the coffees sloshing.
Turns out broccoli can be purple as well as green.
Apparently they’re a bit sweeter than regular broccoli. However, these colorful florets lose their deep purple hue when they’re cooked.
As bold design choices go, this chandelier made from broken shards of dishes is certainly dramatic.
It’s beautiful in its own way, but wouldn’t you worry about taking your eye out on that?
Outdoor workers know that a sufficiently heavy coat hangs itself up, whether it’s on a hook or not.
Seriously, here’s your test of whether you’ve got a good coat or not — can it stand upright on its own?
So, social security cards used to be made of metal.
Back in the good ol’ days, when nobody expected you to carry around an incredibly important flimsy piece of paper for the rest of your life.
This big ol’ slab of transparent jelly is actually a naturally occurring substance.
It’s two pounds of peeled aloe vera — not good eating, but if you’ve got a sunburn, you’re in luck.
This dog could teach a master class in goofy creepiness, because it likes to look at its owner through mirrors.
That’s…that’s enough, little fella. Okay, you’re adorable, now knock it off.
What are the odds that you’d find a hidden Frodo on a computer’s circuit board?
Obviously some Lord of the Rings fan hid that there for the next person to find, and why not?
At the Four Seasons Resort on Hawaii’s Big Island, they really want the room service carts to blend into the scenery.
That’s next level camouflage for a service cart, so I’d say mission accomplished.
Different heat transfer rates can make some interesting things happen in the snow.
If you’re going to have to shovel it later, you might as well enjoy it when it’s pretty, amirite?
