4 . Everyone was shocked as I placed my son Ilias’s first birthday cake in front of him. He loved Sesame Street, so I made him an Elmo cake in rich red icing. I’d worked for hours to perfect my design and make the most delicious and jaw-dropping cake. I enjoyed every minute of it.

I started baking when Ilias was born. At that time, I struggled with the pressure of being a new mum and was diagnosed with postnatal depression. So to help walk out of that dark hole, at night when Ilias slept I ran into the kitchen and decided to bake a cake.

Then, with my mum’s birthday coming up, I saw a handbag cake in a shop. I threw my all into copying it and finally I made it. Mum was so blown away by my creation that she didn’t cut the cake. Instead, she kept it in a glass cake stand on display at home for a month.

Over time I created many delicious delights. The best part was seeing Ilias’s face light up when he saw them. “You should do this for a living,” my husband, Michael, suggested. I laughed it off, but it wasn’t a bad idea.

After Ilias’s third birthday, I set up a shop for my cake baking, calling it Cake Queen Oz, and orders started to come in. As time passed, the bakeshop became my full-time job. Once, I made a Titanic cake that was the length of a table for a lady whose family loved ships. It’s been seven years since Cake Queen Oz was born.

Cake baking brought me joy when I was going through a tough time. Every day I feel lucky that I’ve been able to turn my hobby into my job.

5 . Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English Faster

Have you realized that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.

Hello English

It covers all the aspects of language learning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spelling, speaking and reading skills. It uses interactive games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiobooks, the latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and the alphabet, for the app can’t help you learn English from scratch(从零开始).

Duolingo

If you want to learn English from scratch, then this is the app you are looking for. Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences.

Lingbe

If you are ready to practise your spoken skills in the real—world communication, you’ll need Lingbe. It’s a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.

Hello Talk

Hello Talk is similar to Lingbe as it connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even make video calls with other people.

If you are a beginner, start from Duolingo and then use Hello English to have a good command of the language. For fluent spoken English learners, you can try out Lingbe or Hello Talk.

6 . Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. In a recent study, researchers looked at 28 urban community gardens across California over five years and quantified biodiversity in plant and animal life, as well as ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration (碳封存), food production, pest control, and human well-being.

“We wanted to determine if there were any biodiversity and impacts on ecosystem function in those urban gardens,” says Shalene Jha, the lead author of the study in Ecology Letters. “What we found is that these gardens, which are providing tremendous nutritional resources and increasing well-being for gardeners, are also supporting incredibly high levels of plant and animal biodiversity. It’s a win-win.”

Previous assumptions by scientists about the negative effect of food production on biodiversity have been almost entirely based on intensive rural agriculture enterprises that tend to grow only one or two types of crops, often at a massive scale. Urban community gardens, private gardens, and urban farms and orchards tend to grow more types of plants in smaller areas. The new study is the first to explore the effects of urban gardens across a wide range of biodiversity measures and ecological services.

“It’s estimated that by 2030, about 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, ” Jha says. “And urban farms and gardens currently provide about 15%-20% of our food supply, so they are essential in addressing food inequality challenges. What we’re seeing is that urban gardens present an critical opportunity to support both biodiversity and local food production.”

The study also found that the choices that gardeners make can have a large impact on their local ecosystem. For instance, planting trees outside crop beds could increase carbon sequestration without decreasing food production from too much shade. And covering only within crop beds could help improve soil carbon services, while avoiding negative effects on pest control.

7 . Not too long ago, 41-year-old Garrett Fisher flew a small airplane close to the surface of the largest glacier in Norway. In that environment, the plane carrying a man who pursues glaciers seemed almost like a toy. Fisher is trying to photograph every glacier on Earth before some of them disappear.

Scientists say many glaciers are getting smaller because Earth’s average temperature is increasing. Information from the European Environment Agency, or EEA, says glaciers in the Alps have lost about half of their volume since 1900 and that by 2100, the size of European glaciers could decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent. Historical records of the size of glaciers in Europe also show that glaciers are now shrinking faster. This has pushed Fisher to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph Earth’s remaining glaciers before it’s too late.

Fisher believes his photographs can be of great value to future generations. So, he has launched the Global Glacier Initiative, a non-profit group to support and show his work. He plans to open his photos to the public for research.

Fisher flew a small plane that has a smell of oil and feels like an old car. It was his choice to have the dangerous flying. “The weather is bad and the flying is technically challenging, ”Fisher said. Some people would ask, “Why risk flying over glaciers when satellites have already given pictures of them?” Fisher said that satellite images don’t catch the beauty of glaciers the way his photos can. His photos show the colors, shapes, and shadows as the light from the sun hits the glaciers.

Fisher has paid for his glacier photography with his own money. But it is costly. Money is running out and Fisher is looking for people who will help support his work. He hopes his photos will be a reminder to people. He is trying to obtain the perfect image, which is so beautiful that it can make people and policymakers act.

8 . For years, I rejected this part of myself, until I realized what I was missing.

I used to be proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present, all southern. While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and uneducated, ignorant and narrow-minded. In that awkward stage between teenager and adult, my accent was a symbol of everything I hated about my life in the rural South.

The process of getting rid of my accent began in high school with Gilmore Girls. After each episode, I’d stand before a mirror, practicing the characters’ lines in an effort to speak like a “normal” white upper-middle-class girl. Eventually, I was successful at breaking down my tongue and rebuilding it. Every time I was asked where I was from, I would say “near Memphis” or make an ambiguous statement about my country background.

Now I’m living in a big city with a respectable job downtown. Every step I walk from the train station to the office seems victorious. However, I’ve been pretending and I’m fed up with it. Occasionally my old self escapes from my lips when encouraged by an extra glass of whiskey, but I unconsciously go back to the safety of the unaccented minutes later, making me feel as if I’m a fraud — a girl who forgets where she comes from. Then gradually I’ve become kind of homesick that leads me to put on the old Highwomen record and dance around, singing with all the accents I’ve got left.

My grandmother used to tell me, “Girl, don’t you forget where you come from?” Memories are fading by time but this one has remained impressed on my mind. So, I decide to move back. I’m still searching for what it means to be southern, but now I’m doing it with all the “y’alls”, and “ain’ts” I’ve kept back for so long.

9 . In September, thousands of monuments, civic buildings and private homes throw open their doors to offer a rare glimpse of normally of-limits spaces. Here are some less-known treasures around the UK.

Guided tour of Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden

Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden will be running special tours as part of the Open Doors-Wales festival. It was built as a memorial to prime minister Wiliam Gladstope, Take a tour of beautiful Reading Rooms housing 150, 000 books.

September 16, 10 am-2 pm, booking required.

Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, Glasgow

The atmospheric Britannia Panopticon will be showing off its collection of theatrical relics, props and costumes. Sample Victorian items at the world’s oldest surviving music hall without booking.

September 15 and 16, 11 am-5 pm and September 17, 12 pm-5 pm

Gothic Temple, Stowe Gardens

Visitors to Stowe Gardens will be offered a rare chance to see inside the 18th century Gothic Temple. Though it’s normally rented as a holiday let, its circular rooms and mosaic ceilings will be open to prebooked visitors for one weekend.

September 16 and 17, 10:30 am-4:30 pm, free of charge

Appleton Tower: School of Informatics, Edinburgh University

As part of Scotland’s Doors Open Days festival, Edinburgh University’s Appleton Tower will be offering tours of the world-leading School, including a visit to the study suite on Level 9 which offers far-reaching views of the Edinburgh skyline.

September 23, 11 am-2 pm, booking in advance.