These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create. Japanese illustrator Takanori Aiba, 58, has built the intriguing scale models of windmills, lighthouses and even the Michelin Man.He delicately uses craft paper, plaster, acrylic resin, paint and plastic to create the host of sprawling miniature communities that wrap around the tiny trees.Following his work as an illustrator for Japanese fashion magazine POPYE he has spent the last nine years producing the detailed mini worlds.The creations take at least three months to construct with his Ice Cream Package Tower taking an astonishing 18 months work. Since 2003, he has made eight models, with 10 more planned over the next few years.
SLEEPING within touching distance of wild African animals might not be everyone's idea of a relaxing break .
DIPPING and diving their way through this bumpy journey, these giraffe's duck for cover as they dodge multiple cables and wires .
CARRYING a fully grown goat on his back, this five-year-old boy is a child shepherd in the mountains of northern Ethiopia .
With luminous colours and alien- like features, these magical mushrooms look like they belong on another planet .
A proud gorilla mum welcomes her newborn baby western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species .
A BAMBI was dramatically caught in mid-air by a greedy Nile crocodile in a once-in-a-million flying pincer move .
A terrified moose, trapped in a frozen lake, bobs her head above the icey water and awaits her rescue .
SWIMMING next to 40 tonne whales, dare-devil divers take the plunge with these gentle giants of the sea .
Tina O’Brien, 54, from East Midlands, met Frederick Allchorne, now 62, when she was 15 .
A diving mad couple have finally taken the plunge, having tied the knot 30ft underwater .
Diners on this aeroplane are never disappointed with their meal, because the decommissioned aircraft is now home to an air-mazing McDonald’s restaurant .
A young woman has told how she has been robbed of her fertility and now faces an uncertain future after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of just 22 .