Ice is Nice

Hopefully this link won´t expire: some photos of Iceland´s ice a few weeks back. I wasn´t on this trip, but out with the Icelandic Alpine Club on the same day in an area close-by Reykjavik (Esja). It was a perfect bluesky day where I was too. These photos give you an impression of ice quality over here when conditions are in nick.

http://picasaweb.google.com/roberthalldorsson/UndirEyjafjLlum

(Too bad I didn´t take any snaps of my own on the trip I was on...[not wanting to 'act the tourist' too much... ha ha]. I will try to find someone who did and add my own photos to this posting, rather than poach someone elses!). Mind you, don´t expect my photos to show such steep, impressive stuff! We had fun top-roping and that was good enough for me. For me, it was simply just great to be out.

Sadly, the snow has all but gone now after a thaw these past few days - in just 24h the snowy streets in town were all clear... (sigh... that Gulf Stream....).

There Came A Day

There came a day that caught the summer

Wrung its neck

Plucked it

And ate it.

Now what shall I do with the trees?

The day said, the day said.

Strip them bare, strip them bare.

Let´s see what is really there.

And what shall I do with the sun?

The day said, the day said.

Roll him away till he´s cold and small.

He´ll come back rested if he comes back at all.

And what shall I do with the birds?

The day said, the day said.

The birds I´ve frightened, let them flit,

I´ll hang out pork for the brave tomtit.

And what shall I do with the seed?

The day said, the day said.

Bury it deep, see what it´s worth.

See if it can stand the earth.

What shall I do with the people?

The day said, the day said.

Stuff them with apple and blackberry pie –

They´ll love me then till the day they die.

Then came this day and he was autumn.

His mouth was wide

And red as a sunset.

His tail was an icicle.

Ted Hughes (debated hotly, this ‘not very nice man to Sylvia Plath’ was also a very fine poet). Seems the blog-trolls can´t space it properly though - hey ho! sorry ´bout that.......

Hope y'all don´t mind a bit of poetry. This one feels like Iceland about 2 months back: in mid-November it seemed the sun just suddenly went from town one day. (Thanks Mum, for sending me the poem book a wee while back...).


Of course, the days are getting longer now, and it really is noticeably lighter on successive clear days. This past week the sun has been peeking up over the mountains to our South. Here in Stykkishólmur the days have been bright enough generally, but light doesn´t stick around too long: in the darkest spell it was dark until around 11.30am then darkening again by 3pm. On clear days you saw glorious dusks reflected in the clouds and on the snowy mountains, but no actual UV on your face... sigh...

How much light you get depends on S/N orientation (not surprisingly) and your location with respect to the hills. Although this town is 10k away from the mountains - stuck out on a skinny, flat peninsula - we are on the North side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, which is great for frozen waterfalls, and not bad for light, but we certainly get less actual sunlight than on the South side. In Kolgrafafjörður (see 'Mink Days'), nestled amongst the hills, it was considerably cooler and dimmer than us still..... And in Grundarfjörður, the town closest to Kolgraf., (~30k from us) they get the least daylight of all the Snæfellsnes communities I´ve been told. (I don´t know how much they get: haven´t been too drawn to visiting in recent months....).

To get your sun 'fix' you have to drive over the pass bisecting the mountains to the sunny south side on a fine day... ahh. And with luck it´ll be over there.

Mink Days

My minking days are over.... almost. I´ve still got to trap the animals who are still alive so we can replace their transmitters with ones that will last longer ('change their batteries', so to speak). I am also immersed in data entry if that counts as minking - but I am no longer out in the snow at night: and you know what, I kinda miss it already....(shhh don´t tell my boss!).

So, here are some memories of the past 5 months of mink tracking. I would post photos on my 'flickr' but seems I´m having some teething problems with this technology (no surprise to those who know me!).... so yes, it took ages to upload...

White Christmas in Niceland

Christmas night is when the last of the 13 Icelandic Santas that arrive on the days preceeding Christmas day get to Iceland. I wish I could explain more but I don´t fully get it either - I do know that you have to be good or risk being devoured by an enormous, evil black cat who searches for bad children, which is owned and encouraged to eat children by the wicked mother of all the Santas, some extremely unpleasant and enormous (again) ugly old hag.

So, in some fear of being eaten myself, I spent Christmas Eve (24th) with my bosses and their family. The meat is ptarmigan or Icelandic Rjúpa - apparently birds are imported all the way from Scotland because birds here have been over-harvested by hungry (greedy?) Icelandic hunters at Christmas-time. The bag is one bird per person these days, and the hunting season much restricted. (Can anyone tell me whether Scottish birds are over-harvested??.... I think maybe so....). Anyhow, unfortunately Rjúpa tastes quite delicious....

And the tree has REAL candles burning on it! I was impressed. But maybe there´s danger of losing your presents before you´ve even had a chance to open them...?

On Christmas Day we had respite from rain and wind: it had snowed! I went out on the local Berserkjharaun lavafield (there´s a saga about the Swedish Berserks that were maltreated then murdered out there - cheery tale for Christmas, sorry about that).











Boxing Day (26th) was grim, dark and wet again! This was the view on my hike this time. ha ha.



... but I did manage to find this in a lavafield.... (er, the thermal pool, that is - the feet are (unsurprisingly) my own)

Gleðileg jól

December 23, 8am

Howling rain -
followed by
howling snow -
followed by
damp, howling wind
was Iceland at Christmas.

No streambed safe shelter.
Silly scientist
tossed about like paper.
Out of reach,
Out of touch,
Out in Kolgrafafjörður.

In the shaking headlights of my quavering truck
debris flies past.
Maybe an airborne mink
(or two?)
- who knows.



Well, it was all a bit crazy attempting telemetry this morning - the SW wind roared as it gusted down the valley from over the local 800-1000m peaks. It was pretty dramatic and flattened me a good few times. I am trying - desperately now! - to 'finish' this last mink before Christmas.... She has been a wiley one and seems to like playing hide and seek in the dark with me. Not good for data-collection!

Of course, that was this morning and tonight it is dead-calm. Phew! - it´s nice to be able to walk the streets upright once more.

Had a big thaw and heavy weather recently, which has drowned out the snow and made any unvegetated ground into sloppy Christmas puddin´consistency. That´s exactly what it is like! And makes me feel very festive in the early hours of the morning.

As for what´s next weather-wise, here´s the Christmas forecast.




Handy to be able to check both news in English and weather at the same time. Hmmm...I wonder what 'manly dry' might be?

(explanation: my TV has funny reception)

Anyhow, I sent an email round to most folk - here´s to a very happy Christmas!

Gleðileg jól og heillaríkt komadi ár

I brave Reykjavik

After discussion with others and perusing a few blogs more sophisticated than my own I have attempted to get with the times. So, this post introduces 'The Flickr' (Flicka, Flick-... whatever the hell it is). I´m struggling to get it to look fancy but we shall see! Of course, those new to this blog will discover it in this most modern and dynamic form anyway...

There are some beautiful blogs out in cyberspace. In contrast, my blog is not very artful, or even very up-to-date, but hey, I’m not too concerned. It started as a source of pics to share with the folk back home whilst I was on my overseas trips. It will likely not evolve much past this! I haven’t any fancy laptop, and don’t enthuse about being in the office out of hours: I'm afraid this is as good as it is gonna get.

Excuses/defence over, I was in Reykjavik last weekend, for a pre-xmas, present-driven trip to the concrete jungle. T'was my first urban adventure since I´ve been here, and the contrast with rural Iceland is a big slap in the face. But it was great, as I needed a bit of a break from the mink (....the darkness, the cold, etc.). I stayed with Annie Rhiannon, who is a blog-maestro in my opinion, and a friendly Welsh lass to-boot, who gave me a lift when I was hitching here on first arrival... As I staggered into her house she immediately handed me a beer and got a bath of Icelandic dimensions going for me. This was followed by a (very unIcelandic) curry, (very Icelandic) Glögg (spiced/mulled wine) and a party til 5am with some sort of clubbing experience at around 3am. Not sure about my 'country mouse' stamina for northern latitude night clubs heaving in the wee hours, but the trip out of the country was a great escape for me. It was all good. I didn’t get any decent photos as the light is pretty dim these days (and weather not great this w'end).

















Lastly... but not at all leastly....I was also - finally - ice climbing last weekend (before the partying, I should add). After a while of looking for like-minded enthusiasts in Iceland since I’ve been here, I reveled in sharing the great and glorious Icelandic outdoors with a German called Bernd (who had responded to my ad. in the city bouldering wall). Though I made a roooight royal mess of this exquisitely beautiful waterfall, and I’ve slightly knackered up my knee, it was worth the pain! This day out was at a spot called Hvalfjörður, which is where the 198m Glymur waterfall is found: Iceland’s highest.

....and then there was snow

We´ve been experiencing a cold-snap since I got back from the UK last week. Here's a few photos to make you shiver!






















Here´s how I get to spend the cold nights if Mr. Mink is napping close to the highway (the book is by a certain E Shackleton - makes my complaints of frosty toes pale...). The telemetry antenna balanced delicately on the steering wheel can make driving slightly hazardous if the mink decides to up and go. I´m sat in swathes of clothes, which restricts my movement - if you can imagine it, I move rather like a robot. I often sit over on the passenger side to stretch out the old leg-bones (is this starting to sound cushy? I think so. Hmmm). Then, it´s all action stations if the mink takes off, and I leap over to the drivers side in one balletic move (er, perhaps more like Michelin Man....).




















And in minus conditions, there is always the open air pool to enjoy... esp the 42 C 'hot pot' - ahhhh