Nearly All Bull.

This morning the grey sea mist hid everything beyond the village. It was still lovely and peaceful sitting outside for my 'contemplative' moment.

By late afternoon the sea mist had retreated and we had warm sunshine, though still very windy, instead.

I had Betsi the grey arab mare again for today's riding lesson. There were only five of us and it was mostly canter work, hooray. It was especially fun for me as Betsi besides having a floaty trot is well schooled and goes into canter the minute you ask. The exercise was cantering half circles across the school whenever there was a gap.  After some initial corrections in the way I was sitting I had some really nice canters.

Afterwards I took some stuff to the dump, called in at Wynnstay's but they only have the same make of hat I already have and did the food shopping. I bought myself this chunk of amethyst crystals in a charity shop for just £2 which I thought was a bargain.

 

A last look at some of ceramics and frescoes from Knossos.

It's quite amazing how they have managed to reconstruct so many of the frescoes with only the smallest of original fragments (the raised sections).

I wonder if originally they had some kind of net made of ropes threaded through the handles of these storage jars as even empty the nearly 6ft high jars would have been incredibly heavy.

These cups and other ceramics would not look out of place in a modern day gallery or shop.

And of course being Knossos the bull motif was everywhere.

The impressive 2ft wide bull's head was heavily restored.

At first glance the bull dancer looks to be made of metal but it is in fact made of ivory. Looking at the holes in the top of the head I wonder if they were fixings for hair?

More bulls.

And a bird themed mosaic floor.

I'm not sure about the mosaic but all the other items were from 1600 -1400 BC.