Ceilidh Culture on Iceland´s Culture Night

This year if you are in Reykjavík on the 18th of August, Reykjavík´s Culture Night, come along to Ingólfstorg in the centre of town to dance. There will be dances from all parts of the world.. including ceilidh.There will be two ceilidh classes taught by Óli and I during the day:

14.30 - 15.00 "Orcadian Strip the Willow" - perfect for families. Children love to spin. I used to make myself sick and dizzy regularly spinning around in the middle of the kitchen as a child.

20.00 - 20.45 "The Dashing White Sergeant" - to kick start your evening and warm you up for the night.

Everyone welcome. No partner required. No experience necessary. Even dance-haters will smile! Really!

For more information about Menningarnótt / Culture Night see the Reykjavík city´s website
and for more about ceilidh dancing in Reykjavík see the class website, Ceilidh in Reykjavík!

Jeeps, romance and the yearly bath

En route to Landmannalaugur

Last week I decided it was time for the yearly bath of my little Ssangyong Korando jeep, named "Koriander". It was time, I felt, since I could no longer see the colour of the car. I hope Óli´s Dad approves since he has diligently pointed out that my little jeep is not a Landrover and needs a little more care and attention, and doesn´t look so good all bashed up. Next comes a whole long list of small fixes that are needed and then .. I want a snorkel. Korandos are pretty fine off road; they have a short wheel base and, with 31" tyres, fine ground clearance, but they have air intakes in a ridiculous location, just behind the front bumper. Who wants a jeep in Iceland if you can´t drive through a river in it? Well .. you can.. .. with the aid of a plastic survival bag, some sticky tape and a heavy accelerator foot..

Post-wading picture of Kate, pre-wading picture of Koriander.
Picture taken by Claire Robertson, summer 2006.

.. but the engine- and nerve-destroying potential is too high. Anyone know of a good person to adapt a 4x4 in Iceland, someone that can take some odd bits of drainpipe and make a waterproof snorkel?

So, you may be thinking.. why is a girl interested in tyre sizes and snorkels. Well, firstly my enthusiasm for jeeps might come from my Dad .. see here, and here.. and here, below:

My Dad with his Landrover, Seipnir II, prior to big-wheel modifications.

I have always, I think, liked big cars, dating back to trips in tractors and lorry-spotting on long distance car trips. I always thought it would be cool to be a lorry driver but never quite made it. I was reminded again recently about how cool trucks are as I goggled at the beautiful lines of the North American trucks.

The knowledge about tyre sizes is infectious in this country. When asked about your car the second question is always what size tyres.. not about fuel efficiency. Men might ask the size of the engine or the make first, girls might ask about the colour.. now that I´ve washed it I should be able to check.

Many many people drive around Reykjavík in monster jeeps with 38" or more tyres that never leave town, a bit like a souped up version of the school run jeep. They are good on glaciers though and in snow but in town you NEVER need them. If a little car breaks down in the winter in front of you in town you might be able to drive around them but not over .. for that you need caterpillar tracks. And don´t get me started on studded tyres.. (road-chewing-up, dust-creating outmoded abominations..)

North of Mýrdalsjökull, November 2005, picture taken by Erik Sturkell

Flo the Landrover, coming out of Tröllagjá, north of Þórsmörk, Summer 2005.

However, Iceland´s roads are not that modern and if you want to go somewhere really beautiful or interesting it is often best to have a jeep to tackle the cobbles, boulders, steep inclines and rivers. I like Þórsmörk, but am not taking my little Korando across those rivers by the plastic bag method. Not even if I want to be romantic.. like a Swiss guy recently who proposed to his girlfriend in the river Krossá while they were trying to escape their flooded rental car. She agreed once rescued. Krossá in Þórsmörk, is a big river, fast flowing and not suitable for anything other than big jeeps. Please don´t try it. Take the foot bridge together and visit one of the caves in the hills between Húsadalur and Langidalur, walk hand in hand along one of the prettiest woodland paths in the country or try out the sauna or new hot tub at Húsadalur.

Well, so I washed the car .. and then we took a 15 hour day trip to Landmannalaugur and Hrafntinnasker.. to look at freakily coloured mountains and lava flows that sparkle in the sun. Some photos arriving shortly.

Spoke too soon

The sun has gone and we have drizzle and haar or Scotch mist .. or Icelandic normal summer weather. It is a relief, in a way, to know that the world has not gone mad and swapped the norms of life around too much. The air smells clean and fresh with grass and flowers. The school children outside tending the gardens around the University are not impressed and walk like zombies in their green rubber outfits. I feel sorry for them, and slightly less than amused that today was to be my first day of fieldwork this month.

A strange bright light in the sky

My family have been visiting us in Iceland. We live in a matchbox so they have been moving around, staying in my bed while Óli was away in Denmark teaching Strip the Willow to Icelanders and Danes, being looked after by Óli´s folks in Kópavogur and now with my sister trying out the Hotel Cabin.. each with a cabin sized room.

The weather has been glorious, we´ve sat outside most days to eat, my sister can´t sleep because of the light and we gave up trying to sleep through the bright nights and finally bought some blackout curtains. It took some time to find some without blue trains or pink fairies but I made it in the end once the sales assistant realised I meant they were for me, a funny foreigner who wants to cut out that light and sleep through the night rather than party in the 24 hour daylight.

There is something strange going on in Iceland. We´ve had sun .. real, warm sun, sit in your smallest little summer dress type sun, get pink shoulders and a silly pink tip to your nose type sun.. for weeks and weeks. I don´t want it to go away. It is of course now too hot to sit inside our matchbox house with no ventilation but we are living in the garden, which I like.

Irish days

Irish days in Akranes are celebrated every year now with music, games and competitions. Irish days in Iceland? Akranes, just a little north of Reykjavík and reached through the long tunnel beneath Hvalfjörður (whale fjörd) was founded by two Irish brothers. So for the last few years all things Irish have been celebrated at the start of July in this little coastal Icelandic town.

This year, on the Friday afternoon and on the Saturday night I joined a Scottish friend and her friends for a spot of music and song. I really enjoyed it. The girls were so much fun and so talented and three guys joined us .. two Icelanders on banjo and Ukulele and a Quebecois fiddle player. I hope to go next year too.

Photos taken by Sylviane Lebon

First steps in North America

I am back in Iceland now. It is a true summer here with temperatures almost reaching 20 C and blue skies for the last week. I have worn my newly acquired summer dress bought to survive Montreal temperatures and I have sat by the beach and watched the warm waters from Öskjuhlíð trickle into Nauthólsvík making a small sun, sea and pale sand oasis along these normally dark, chilly northern shores.

Nauthólsvík sand castle, made September 2006.
The sand is just a touch too shelly for great architectural feats.

I have returned also with lots of thoughts and ideas stemming from my trip to North America. I had expected something rather different. I was nervous of those big cities I planned to visit. I thought I might get lost or maybe I´d feel in danger walking through streets alone. I certainly didn´t expect to feel at home.

At home in a bookshop on Commercial Drive, Vancouver

The best things .. I didn´t feel like a foreigner, particularly in Montreal; seeing chipmunks and blue jays; talking to people I´d heard about and finding that they are really decent people; feeling the sun on my skin and watching the world go by from the shade of a tree or a balcony with a book in my hand; looking an old friend in the eyes. The worst things .. wearing woollen trousers at 30 degrees C; trying to be a tourist and see the highlights of Vancouver in one day; trying to stay in touch with home with a 7 hour time difference.

Mt. Rainier snowman, mid June.

Some spell has been cast over me that has opened my eyes to what I like about different lifestyles. It is nice to have clarity and a different perspective. The life of a city, the bustle, the freedom of not needing a car and the friendliness of strangers. I don´t know if this can be achieved in Iceland. Outside a 10 minute walking zone of the centre of Reykjavík you are in the suburbs already because it is a city serving a pretty small population, and is definitely car-dominated. No corner shops, no high frequency public transport. No general openness to strangers. In general it can take time to feel the friendliness of Icelanders though it is there, just gradually revealed and true and long-lasting once found.

I am also re-inspired about work. I met some interesting people and saw some interesting sand and gravel! Avalanches deposits and mud flows. It is funny that sediment can create such enthusiasm in me but since it does I take this to assume I´m not in the wrong field of work. Nice news.

Osceola mudflow deposits.. and trees. A massive mid-Holocene lahar. Much more about the Osceola mudflow on the US Geological Survey site.

So, last week I started something new at work. I start working with others more, I start thinking about a project that is less specific than jökulhlaups / glacier floods. I start writing again.

Mount St. Helens

This picture of the crater at Mt. St. Helens was taken in mid June this year and shows the base of the newest dome and it is just possible to make out the snouts of two glacial tongues to either side of the dome. The cloud base is just sitting at the elevation of this newest activity. The foreground shows rock avalanche and lahar deposits from the 1980 eruption, dissected by later streams and lahars. The little chipmunk below (can you see him?) is sitting on a tree knocked down in the blast from 1980. Much of the area has been reforested all around here after incredibly intensive replanting of commercial forestry areas (by hand!) and these trees, only 27 years later, are many metres tall.

Mount Rainier.. birds and folk

Vancouver piccies