Alexschi - White.wine

Snow White: Do you consider yourself pretty?

Sleeping Beauty: How many hours do you sleep each night?

Cinderella: Do you have a curfew?

Rapunzel: Do you like being outside?

Little Red Riding Hood: Do you trust strangers easily?

The Wolf and the seven little Goats: Are you easily fooled?

The Seven Ravens: Do you have any siblings? How is your relationship to them?

Beauty and the Beast: What makes a person beautiful in your eyes?

The Little Mermaid: What sacrifice would you bring for love?

The Frog Prince: What do you find disgusting?

Jack and the Beanstalk: What plants are in your room?

Puss in Boots: Do you have a pet? Do you want one?

Rumpelstiltskin: What is the meaning of your url?

Bluebeard: Name one character flaw!

Pinocchio: What is your greatest wish?

Peter Pan: What is your (mental) age?

The Star Money: What is your most prized possesion?

Golden Mary and Pitch Mary: Are you more of a lazy person or do you work hard?

The Snow Queen: Who is your best friend and what would you do for them?

Godfather Death: What qualities do you think make a good parent?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses: Do you like to go on parties?

The Emperor's New Clothes: Do you care much about your clothes?

The Valiant Little Tailor: Do you think of yourself as brave?

The Princess and the Pea: Are you a squeamish person?

Jessica Brown Findlay

absolutely lovely.

Photographing the Milky Way Over Greece

Alexandros Maragos is an Athens based filmmaker and photographer best known for his landscape photography, astrophotography and timelapse imagery. In his own words:

The Milky Way is the name of the spiral galaxy in which our solar system is located. It is our home in space. The Earth orbits the Sun in the Solar System, and the Solar System is embedded within this vast galaxy of stars. In the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way is visible in the southern half of the sky. This makes Greece one of the best places in the world to see and photograph the galaxy because of the country’s geographic location in Southern Europe at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

As a filmmaker and photographer I feel very fortunate to live here. Every time I want to shoot the night sky, all I do is to pick a new spot on the map and just go there and take the shot. Greece is a heaven for astrophotography. Whether you choose a mountain, a beach, a peninsula or any of the 6,000 islands, the Milky Way is always visible in the southern sky.

To see more of his work visit his website or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Images and text via

(via Pinterest)

magnifique!!!

What better way to travel in the 15th century? Here’s a few images from the litters, sedan chairs & palanquins linkspage.

Architects for Animals: Giving Shelter

In an effort to raise money for FixNation, a non-profit charity that aims to reduce the homeless cat population in Los Angeles by spaying and neutering them, 12 architects and designers have created fun cat shelters for their recently held Architects for Animals: Giving Shelter benefit.

Images and text via + via

Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Review : The New Yorker

May Day – a potted history

In addition to the spring equinox (which is around 20 March in the northern hemisphere), 1 May was a traditional date for marking the arrival of spring. Across Europe there have been – and still are – many rich traditions representing fertility and (hopefully!) warmer weather.

The month of May is named after the Greek goddess Maia, depicted here with flower garlands and wreaths.

The Romans marked the start of May with the Floralia. They held a five-day festival to honour Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, which was declared a holiday by Julius Caesar. People would dance, gather flowers and celebrate with public games, theatre and merrymaking to mark the arrival of longer days and the start of the farming season.

The Romans also used the Greek myth of Persephone (Roman: Proserpina) and Demeter (Roman: Ceres) to explain the changing seasons. 

In the UK, May Day has long been celebrated with a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic traditions. The Celtic festival of Beltane takes place on 1 May. In Celtic tradition, the sun was held prisoner during winter months and was released each spring to rule the summer sky. Celtic peoples celebrated this with a huge feast, with great fires and dancing. You can find out more about Celtic festivals here.

Other UK May Day traditions include dancing round a maypole, as seen in this 19th-century print imagining life in Elizabethan England. Although maypole dancing clearly goes back centuries, and is prevalent in many European countries, there is no agreement on when it began, or why!

The eve of 1 May (the night of 30 April) has also been celebrated for centuries in Germanic countries as Walpurgisnacht. The 8th-century abbess St Walpurga is credited with bringing Christianity to Germany. In Germanic folklore Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht (literally ‘Witches’ Night’), is believed to be the night of a witches’ meeting as they await the coming of spring. As Walpurga’s feast was held on 1 May, she became associated with this May Day folk tradition. The eve of May Day, traditionally celebrated with dancing, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht. 

In the late 19th century, a group of socialists and communists chose May Day as the date for International Workers’ Day. Although they fall on the same day, International Workers’ Day and the traditional May Day are essentially different celebrations.

‘May Day’ by Walter Crane. Watercolour and gold, 1874.

‘Maia. Mayus’, the goddess Maya on a cloud at centre, holding flower garlands and wreaths; the zodiacal sign of Gemini beyond. Print made by Jacobus Harrewyn. Engraving, 1698.

‘Flora, Goddess of Flowers’.  Mezzotint with some etching, 1800.

‘May day in the reign of Queen Elizabeth’ by James Henry Watt. Etching and engraving on chine collé, 1836.

‘The Triumph of Labour’ by Walter Crane. Inscribed in capitals along the lower border: ’ Designed to commemorate the International Labour Day May 1 1891 / and dedicated to the wage workers of all countries’. Woodcut, 1891.

Le Corbusier, Villa Jeanneret-Perret (Maison Blanche), La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1912 sources: Girard-Perregaux at Watchonista Association Maison Blanche