Tagged: wonderfulworld

05
Aug
2011

TO THE NORTH!

Before going to Iceland, the furthest north I had ever been was Bergen, Norway (60°20’N). Reykjavik is further (64o09’N), and 4 days into our Iceland trip, we went almost all the way to the top of the country. Reykjavik is less than 330 km from the Arctic Circle, but Akureyri is only 100 kilometers away! Akureyri wasn’t even in our itinerary but a volcano ganged aft agley and put a stop to our plans to head for the southeast coast of Iceland, to see Skaftafell National Park, the Vatnajökull Glacier and Svartifoss (the Black waterfall). After 4 days in Reykjavik,...

01
Aug
2011

THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, PART 3

The last thing we did on the bus tour that you must think lasted AN ETERNITY since it is taking me that long to post about it thanks to the damn hackers that keep taking down LiveJournal…turdbuckets!…was visit theTingvellir valley, which is where the Icelandic people held their ting or assembly every year since the 12th century. They don’t hold it there NOW, of course. Now they have a capitol with government buildings and such-like but personally I think they SHOULD hold it there, because it is truly beautiful. A ting was where the people met to review the laws,...

31
Jul
2011

THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, PART 2

MAN, that was a long break. I meant to post this directly after part the first, but Livejournal has been completely down or wonky for a week. 🙁 After Gullfoss, and waiting for EXTREMELY late stragglers to get back on the bus…which, seriously people, what is up with that? You know the time to be back at the bus: pay attention and plan accordingly! We then drove over to the Haukdalur Valley which is full, full I say, of geothermal activity. On the steaming slopes of Laugarfjall are more than 40 hot springs, mud pots, geysers and other fumaroles. The...

24
Jul
2011

THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, PART 1

Even though bus tours are not my favorite way to sightsee, they have a lot to be said for them: if it’s a good one, you usually get a great deal of excellent information about where you are going and what you are seeing, much more than you would if you just went to the place yourself and looked at it. You get facts, history, colorful anecdotes and a timetable that keeps you moving. Our tour guide for the Golden Circle tour out of Reykjavik was good, though her English left something to be desired and she did the tour...

17
Jul
2011

NOT ENOUGH SYNONYMS FOR AMAZING

Iceland was amazing. I wish we’d had more time and that I had better feet for hiking and better knees for climbing because that country is just MADE for hikers and climbers. Everywhere we turned there was something incredible to look at. We were completely saturated in natural beauty for 8 days straight. 1000-year old lava fields covered with pale green-gray moss like melted cheese on pizza (for MILES). Craters tall and squat and smooth. Pseudo-craters covered in short, brilliant green grass looking like a string of octopus tentacle suckers. Lava formations like some crazy-quilt rock-garden fantasy. Bright blue mineral...

11
Jun
2011

INVINCIBLE SUMMER

Things that I am grooving on lately: Looking: Swedish summer! Listening: Sara Bareilles — Little Voice Reading: Bill Bryson — At Home, A History of Private Life Drinking: Schweppes Pear Lime Fusion Eating: mozzarella & tomatoes, red seedless grapes Flowering: Paradisbuskena (Paradise bushes! latin: Kolkwitzia Amabilis), it’s called Beauty Bush in English, and it really is incredible. Giant bushes FULL of these gorgeous deep pink flowers Karin took this photo of the farmhouse behind us. It’s falling apart…no one has lived in it or taken care of it for a couple of years now. The green-covered mound to the right...

06
Jun
2011

AFTERNOON ON A SUNNY SUMMER HOLIDAY

The breeze is ruffling the parasol—it’s making flapping sounds like the wings of some large captive bird. A delirious dance of wind and rippling fabric. The eges of the parasol are frayed; it’s almost always windy here and they’ve had several summers’ worth of windy workouts. The sun has heated the wooden boards of the deck to a degree that makes them unpleasant to walk barefoot on. The wood is bleached to a soothing gray and darker knotholes contrast with marching rows of shiny nailheads. Dandelions, grass and clover stretch illicit green fingers up between the planks. Karin just came...

23
May
2011

CAPTURED

There’s nothing nicer than going for a walk in May. The lilacs are blooming, the lupines are blooming, the rapeseed is glowing. The weedy edges of the meadows are leggy and exploding; and wisps float on the sunshine-filled air. A blackbird trills ahead of us; a hedge is filled with sparrows fluttering and busily rustling. Beech hedges shine in the sunlight and everyone we meet is smiling. A new neighbor’s brand-new puppy gambols in the dandelions. At first, the kids didn’t really want to go for the walk, but they warmed up to the idea. 🙂 Do I HAVE to...

10
May
2011

RAMBLING

A jackdaw perches on the corner of the playhouse. I can hear the summer sound of children laughing and bouncing on the trampoline as the sun slides into shadow at the end of the day. A tiny spider dangles by a silken thread from the edge of the porch roof, legs wheeling frantically as it motors upwards. All the greens have evened out, darkened into summer shades; the neon edges of newness no longer vibrant and jarringly alive. Today is only Tuesday. For once, the week seems to be strolling through the days; no frantic sense of time slipping by...

05
May
2011

BIG BITS OF TID

Every day when I come home after work, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck: SO TIRED. I’m not tired at work. I just seem to collapse and deflate as soon as I get home, and I can’t AFFORD to: there is still stuff to be done. Example: today, when I came home, I dealt with Karin’s salami selling (yes, again), got Martin off to piano, got dinner on the table, took Karin to soccer practice, went to the grocery store, put the food away, watered the pots and garden, planted nasturtiums, updated the AWC calendar and...

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