The land of the Minotaur + Onassis's swimming pool/dance floor

For my last post of the summer, I chose some mosaics from Hersonissos, a summer resort 25 km away from Heraklion, the capital of Crete (Greece) and a little "surprise" swimming pool, both linked to Crete and Heraklion (the land of the Minotaur)..

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The following frieze with the jumping bull is a very famous fresco from Knossos, Crete which I wanted to include in this post, as it is linked with mosaics in the sense that Aristoteles Onassis had a mosaic floor for the swimming pool of his yacht designed on the basis of this specific fresco. This is what I had read in one of my mosaic books years back and on the occasion of this post I said, let me see if I can find out more and get pictures of this swimming pool ! I have been truly lucky.....

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Here it is right here (picture shows Onassis with Churchill) - look where they are sitting on! From what I read from the pic source Onassis's party trick was to flood the swimming pool (which also served as a dancing floor) while people were still dancing. Read more here

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VERY BEST SUMMER WISHES!

Patmos: The land of the Apocalypse

Patmos. The island where the Apocalypse was written. I have visited the island 4 or 5 years ago and the air you breathe there is different than any other place. Indeed a holy man had been there and a remarkable event had occurred. On the island you can view one of the few rare examples of micromosaics of all times. It's a mosaic icon of St.Nicholas located in the museum at the Monastery of St.John.

The pictures you see here are taken from picasa web and they come from personal albums. The first two wall mosaics are to be found on the exterior above an entrance to the Monastery (1st pic) and the site of the cave of the Apocalypse  (2nd pic). The 3rd picture is a view of the port town Skala. The last picture is a view of the Monastery. Mesmerising just to look at ..imagine being there!

Here's a website on Patmos with more pictures, though tiny ones, but with general information on the island

http://www.greekisland.co.uk/patmos/patmos.html

A bit more of this gem of the Greek blue seas:

panoramio.com

Places like this one are ideal for a creative life - soothe your soul and trigger inspiration - often divine, if that is what you seek.

Housework

 

image from here


The mosaic above is a detail of the Nativity of the Virgin in which a young woman is shown arranging the child's cradle, 1315-1320, Chora Monastery, Constantinople (Istanbul).
Saturday is the day when I usually do the housework. I am lucky that I have a helping hand from family these days.
Do you do your chores on a daily basis according to what's needed to be done or do you have a particular day that you dedicate to cleaning, doing the laundry etc ?