Karen's Home on the Blog

Fleece, Garden

2009-10-29T19:48:00.004-04:00

The reporting is getting a bit behind the reality. It was a few weeks ago now that I was at the Woodstock Fleece Festival, where I found this delightful fleece waiting to be taken home by someone. The vendors and displays inside weren't nearly as much fun as the creatures on the outside of the building. No pictures there. And although I didn't find a new spinning wheel, which I was hunting for, I did gather some new Shetland rovings, which I need like I need a hole in the head.

Came home that weekend to discover that somehow we'd managed to overlook this nest all summer long. Can't imagine how. We did notice an increase in wasps in the yard, but I guess neither of us ever looked up.

It's gone now. I had some guys from the local nursery do some yard work last week, and handed off the task to them amongst the other chores.

Leaves, of course, are everywhere. Neil got this new gadget that sucks and mulches them. It's been very handy.

But this one leaf paused on the way down to attach itself to the bird feeder.

Pretty.

Bird feeder by Darrell Markewitz at Wareham Forge. Advertising is intentional - he's our friend. And I really like the bird feeder!

Bogenschutzenfest, the pottery, handspun on the loom!

2009-10-24T11:09:00.004-04:00

This is one of my favourite pieces from the clay firing. It started out as a bowl, and collapsed, and turned into a small vase.

We made our yearly usual appearance at Bogenschutzenfest. I love this event. I don't really know why.

Maybe it's the archery, maybe it's the silly factor. You see, there's this styrofoam bird on top of flag pole..... and the bar opens halfway through the day.

On a more serious note, I have finally decided to weave with my handspun.

There it is, in mid-warp. I'm holding my breath. It's scary.

Karen

Viking Althing

2009-10-05T21:23:00.007-04:00

So.... it's been a busy few weeks again. I'm way behind.

Back in September, one of the groups in the SCA held an event loosely based on a Viking Althing. The Althing is basically a gathering in Iceland's history where all the people came together to hear the laws read out, and some legal cases decided. Because they only happened once a year, the Althing was also sort of a party / merchant / craftsman mecca.

The Dark Ages Recreation Company - www.darkcompany.ca - and Regia - www.regia.ca - and Torvik - www.torvik.org - were all asked to participate as well and show off our unique Viking Era skills.

I'm a part of the DARC group. This is what the 'viking' street looked like, with DARC folk front and center and Regia and Torvik at the far end.

It's hard to parse from this picture, but DARC had 'booths' with a money changer and pewter caster, a fellow working on a pole lathe turning wood, a tavern for the group cooking appropriate foodstuffs (and boy, was that ever a discussion in the planning stages!), a textiles co-operative, a wood carver, a blacksmith, and a bead merchant.

I was mostly spinning all day in the textiles co-operative and sometimes helping out in the kitchen.

Kadja is also part of DARC and was experimenting with pit firing clay vessels. She and Foote the Potter (from Regia) are seen here covering the pit fire.

It's a process that takes a full day. Digging a pit, carefully placing fragile pottery and building a smoking fire on top of it, and then burying the whole thing to burn out underground, gradually 'curing' the clay.

The next morning, we all (those who had pots in the fire) helped dig out the pots... it was really neat. Some of my pots actually survived!

Snorri showed up to peruse the pots....

Remember Snorri from our trip to Iceland in July? Well, when we got home, we sent him off to Peterborough to travel back to Iceland and then on to Denmark and England with another couple, who returned and gave him back to Steve, his maker. Who knows where Snorri will show up next?

Doggie

2009-09-23T21:00:00.002-04:00

Aka Leif the Licky.

It's September and....

2009-09-09T15:56:00.005-04:00

The students have returned to the campus, en masse. *sigh* To be that young again.

I haven't seen The Tool yet. Usually the engineers have to strut obnoxiously through Arts Quad at least once with the thing. But it is still early in the term.

Still early in the term, and one of my more unflappable co-workers has already been heard to mutter something to the effect of "I think they're trying to kill us."

-----------

The September long weekend, created compliments of Labour Day, brings it's usual trip up north for the annual SCA event at Bonfield.

Vikings everywhere, oh my.

Well, just Viking tents apparently.

-----------

My tomatoes are starting to hit the production level. Sort of. Finally.

It's been a bad year for the tomatoes. Big plants, but relatively few tomatoes - I think I'm seeing the results of a critically reduced bee population. Next year I may take the precaution of pollinating by hand.

But between my own and the farmer's market, I've managed to stock up enough pasta sauce to last for the year, I hope.

Yes, that is an entire shelf in the upright freezer. Maybe a few more batches?

Karen

Bubbles and the garden

2009-08-24T21:35:00.005-04:00

On the weekend, I went with the menfolk to Cedar Hills Park in Wiarton, to watch the bubbles while they went scuba diving. Isn't it a pretty place? And a beautiful day? *sigh*

Da boys had fun. :)

And they taught me something - it took us 3 hours to get there, and they took another 40 minutes or so to get their equipment on and tested. Same in reverse afterwards. All for about 40 minutes underwater where the real fun is.

I should apply this to my weaving. The warping takes a good solid 8 hours of work. And it is a terribly picky fidgity boring annoying thing to do. But really, in perspective.... a small price to pay for the joy of weaving.

Anyhoo... I digress. I was up to my usual tricks of trying to tag the wildlife too. This seagull graced me with his presence. I sense he was disappointed 'though that I didn't try to bribe him with food.

Back home in the garden, this sunflower is thriving under the birdfeeder. Apparently the birds missed one or two of the seeds...

And.... my tomatoes are starting to ripen!! Hooray!

Back home

2009-08-16T19:50:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been someplace that's so special, so different, that it's hard to let it go when you go back to your normal life?

Iceland's like that. I've been back for almost a week and I feel like.... without seafood and restaurants, I don't know what to have for dinner. Without the clean, clear, fresh air - I don't know how to breathe. It is incredibly hot and muggy here. Without being in Iceland, I don't know what to blog about!

*sigh*

Have I mentioned yet how two weeks of near constant rain and summer temperatures affect a garden? We didn't ask the house/dog sitter to do anything other then water the garden if the weather didn't do the deed.

The lawnmower broke just before we went on vacation anyway, and I didn't want to educate a city boy on how to care for the tomatoes.

So.... the grass was overgrown and the tomatoes were every which way out of control and there were weeds.... everywhere.

We hired a friend's 13 year son - Peter - to help with the weeding this weekend and got started. Peter cleared the driveway, the path to the back gate, the flagstone pathway and the front garden. Neil handled the fenceline garden, and cut the lawn with a rental lawnmower until ours can be fixed.

I weeded, and weeded, and weeded, as much of the rest of the gardens as I could. And staked the tomatoes, and cut their suckers. And discovered why the irises didn't bloom much and died abruptly - I think they are too crowded, too covered in mulch and plant remains, and two weeks of constant rain have rotted many of the bulbs.

Anyway... things are mostly back under control.

Neil's freshly weeded fenceline garden.

Neil's shade garden. It's his thing. We have distinctive garden preferences.

The tomatoes - back under control, sort of. While I don't have a person standing in the shot to give you perspective, consider that I am 5 foot 4 inches tall and standing to take this photo. It is not angled up in any way.

Something else that I found strange upon returning home are these black eyed susans. It just doesn't seem like it's the right time for them. It feels too early yet in the season. For me, black eyed susans are the harbinger of fall.

Iceland: some numbers

2009-08-09T06:06:00.006-04:00

18 days
11 hotels or guesthouses
1 ridiculously hard bed
0 "soft enough" beds

0 incidences of salt and vinegar chips
At least a dozen incidences of searching grocery stores for said chips - I lived in hope

1 incidence, purely by the kindness of a charming waiter, of vinegar made available for french fries

6 completely new food experiences - puffin, whale, reindeer, hakarl, langoustine, monkfish and liquid nitrogen

5 hours. Until the very last night here, that was the longest consecutive sleep I could achieve in a country with this much sun in the summer. On the last night here, I almost got 7 hours!

5 hours on the plane, 4 hours ahead in time difference.

0 natural disasters - last year you see, there was this earthquake...

1 incidence of whale watching that resulted in 0 whales spotted and 3 hours of vomiting

1.5 Canadian lanes wide - that's how large Icelandic 2 lane roads are. In the West Fjords, .....largely ungraveled and often steep and blind...... that makes driving
rather interesting.

1 billion waterfalls encountered

1 volcano encounter

1 glacier

1 billion museums or 'centres'

Dozens and dozens of dirty brown rags categorized and photographed - how's that going Michelle?

18 days in Iceland? Priceless!

Questions? I'd be happy to answer.

Last day in Iceland :(

2009-08-08T18:23:00.005-04:00

The last few days have been fun, but I have few pictures to show for it.

We started off thursday morning by getting up and deciding to go to Thingvellir, rain or shine. We wanted to go Wednesday night after dinner, but it was raining. Raining too hard even for the hotel outdoor hotpot, never mind a walk around the national park.

Got there.... rain mostly stopped for a bit. Went to Oxarfoss first to try out the tripod idea that Greg suggested. Longer exposures can be done better with a tripod, humans find it difficult to hold a camera steady long enough. And we did bring the tripod, after all, so we might as well use it.

Really cool water..... strange colours in the rock and moss. I think I have some work to fine tune this idea.

The rain started again in torrents midway up the continental divide. *sigh*

Neil went back for the car like a gallant gentleman, and I trudged up to the tourist centre at the top, which was somewhat closer. Pulled off layers and tried to dry out watching films of the lake and UNESCO world heritage sites while waiting for Neil or the rain to stop, whatever would come first.

Along with dozens and dozens of other tourists like me all hiding in the only shelter, short of their cars or buses.

Snorri is seen here overlooking the valley and the nation's guest houses for visiting dignitaries. The hotel that we would have been staying at was right across the parking lot from the dignitaries' guesthouses but it burned to the ground a few weeks ago and now it's a lawn.

Snorri's picture was taken in a rush, in the rain, before we got in the car and drove back to Reykjavik, completing our circle.

Errr... with a brief stop at the factory outlet store for Alafoss, Iceland's leading wool producer / exporter. The dollar exchange in the last year has effectively made this wool about half the price I can get it for in Canada, but I'm a little afraid of how little room I have left in the suitcases so I didn't end up buying anything.

We arrived in Reykjavik in the early afternoon and went to the Student bookstore at the University of Iceland to hunt down a book for a friend, and not finding it, went to the National Museum next door to hunt in their gift shop, since they did publish it in the first place. Sold out, all across Iceland and at the publishing house.

BUT.... on a whim, I asked at admissions if they had changed their policy on taking pictures in the museum. Last year, the answer was NO, and we were quite disappointed. This year.... the policy has changed as of April, and we can! Neil went back to the car to get the camera!

One drawback.... the lighting level is quite low in the museum and pictures are extremely difficult to take well. These few are the best of a bad lot. All are approximately in the Settlement Period.

Beads....

A textile bit, probably tablet woven trim....

A reconstruction of what it is currently thought that a warp-weighted loom would have looked like based on later period evidence. It should be noted that there is very little actual remains of these looms from the Settlement Period. There are no actual whole looms. Loom weights, sword beaters, a pin beater, spindle whorls.... but no actual loom frames.

An axehead...

That night, we went out to dinner in Reykjavik with Michele, an archaeologist friend from Rhode Island, who just arrived in Iceland to study the nation's textiles. Elín, whom Neil has been corresponding with about bead finds in Iceland, joined us later for drinks. Much conversation and a late night later.....

We woke up friday morning to head off to the National Museum archives with Michele - me to look at textiles as her assistant and Neil to look at beads. We are not allowed to publish those pictures. While I'm quite sure they mean for profit, I'm erring on the side of caution, and applying it to this blog.

Except for this one of Snorri of course, seen here sitting beside the boxes of textile remains that Michele and I got through after 7 hours of eye-bleeding staring at small fragments, tiny weave patterns, the set of the spin ....all various shades of unrelenting brown.

And damned, but it was exhilarating. I touched (with gloves) fabric pieces that were quite possibly a 1000 years old. I took pictures of things that probably will never get released to public viewing because the museum has boxes and boxes and boxes and still more boxes of these things.....

Yes, I know I'm weird. :) But it's a good weird.

We went to the hot pots afterwards to rest our weary eyes.

And then out to dinner, again with Michele, to a place called Orange. It was an accidental find, in that we had aimed at another place nearby and were turned off by the crowds and dingy appearance of the place.

Orange is.... pretentious, terribly trendy in design, has at least the one waitress who couldn't bring herself to smile or even be polite, and was still.... a fantastic experience!

The food was divine and experimental, and there's weird science with liquid nitrogen both for the cooking thereof and for entertainment. I'll say no more. Go and look them up on the website, and if you get to Iceland - go with friends who love food and laughter.

Today.... our last full day in Iceland, we slept in deliciously, a rare thing for me, and then picked up Michele to go shopping and to amuse ourselves with the Gay Pride parade through downtown Reykjavik.

It was a party for sure, but way more tame then Toronto's Gay Pride celebrations - sorry folks. I know Reykjavik likes to think it can party, but it just doesn't have the sheer volume that Toronto's crowd can offer. And somehow the party mix is much more pleasant in Icelandic then in English.

Oh and there was the flea market, and more shopping, and a bite of harkarl - rotted shark. I had made it my goal to give it a try this year. Must not leave the country without doing so. It is memorable. I say say no more least I spoil the surprise.

Tomorrow, we're picking up Michele for one last visit and a stop at the Blue Lagoon, on the way to the airport.

I will miss the fresh air, the wild wild geology of this place and my first (hopefully not last) encounter with the National Museum archives, and all the seafood along the way...... but I am looking forward to seeing my dog and my waterbed again.

2 days behind, 2 days ago

2009-08-05T17:55:00.006-04:00

After visiting Jokulsarlon, I was intrigued by the glacier that we could see.... just outside the hotel room window. I wanted to get right up to it. Distances are deceptive in Iceland, and it wasn't really "just outside" the hotel room, but several hills away. So we took an access road for glacier climbers instead, and walked in instead. Not being in safety gear, we didn't attempt to climb on the glacier itself. Took pictures, didn't like them.

Did find this on the road for Darrell....

Snorri visits
Kirkjubaejaklauster with us. Click on the link, it explains better than I can at the moment. I think I'm coming down with a cold.

I blame Neil. It's all these darned waterfalls that he's dragging me to see. ;) Or the museums, I just can't decide. He got his waterfalls mixed up. I really wanted to see the one that you can walk behind and he thought it was this one, was convinced that it's this one. So he says... let's go, and starts plunging toward the waterfall. The mist layer is so heavy it's starting to soak us and I'm yelling 'no way, can't be this one" and finally he stops. He's gotten far enough and wet enough to understand the error of his ways, but he just had to wait for me to catch up with him to turn around.

This is Skogafoss, by the by...

Yet another 18th-ish century museum. Really well done, but just jammed packed full of mostly uninteresting stuff. Except for this thing.... apparently 17th century, and it's the remains of an upright for the warp-weighted loom, which was in use in Iceland well into the 18th century.

Now this one, this is the waterfall that you can walk behind. It's really really cool, and somewhat terrifying inside the cavern because the sound of the water falling echoes and vibrates and you think you're in the middle of an airplane taking off but it's all around you.

This is the Saga Centre in Hvolsvolur. It is focused on telling the story of Njala's saga. It's really well done in one aspect only - lots of large boards with pretty picture to tell the tale. But oh my.... where do I even begin on the 3 dimensional stuff they are using to flesh out the story?

The blade on the spear is wrong, the shield is the wrong shape, the helm is wrong, the broaches are wrong and the shape of the cloak is wrong! That's just one of maybe a dozen such characters, all filled with looming inaccuracies.

And then that day was over.... it was a long long drive to what is billed as Iceland's only 4 star hotel and restaurant. I might agree that the restaurant deserves 4 stars, but sadly, not the hotel. In fact, I think it's earned the dishonour of the hardest beds in the entire country. And the outdoor hot tubs weren't... hot. At all. *sigh*

Now... off again the next morning to.... the Hekla Volcano Centre. Wonderful presentation. A little light on the facts, if you want more of that science stuff about volcanoes, but really really well presented.

The Centre uses several modern techniques like a tilted floor and ambient noise to disorient and disquiet it's patrons, to emphasize the destructive power of volcanoes, and Hekla's history in particular. A very large eruption in the mid 1300s earned it the nickname of the gateway to Hell, because it's ash layer made it as far as Scotland and England, and destroyed farmland for miles and miles around.

These ash layers are part of Iceland's archaeological dating, because eruptions were recorded in some fashion as far back as 1104.

This is Hekla today - note that people are moving back into the area. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable living so close.

Hekla is calm today. Well, on the day I took this picture of the seismometer, anyway. :) It's very reassuring.

One last stop for the moment is Stong. It's a recreated Settlement Period (ie. Viking Age) longhouse, that got buried by ash during Hekla's eruption in 1104. Archaeologists have uncovered the site and a recreation was built in 1974 as part of celebration of the 1100 years of Iceland's settlement.

It's been very well built, but Neil and I both agreed that it really needs re-enactors to bring it to life.

Snorri approves.

This warp weighted loom is on temporary loan to the Stong site. It is beautifully set up, and has obviously had a very competent weaver behind it at some point.

Now, I have to apologize. I'm still two days behind in blogging! The last two days have been so full that I haven't had time to finish up this post about the previous two days so... you'll just have to bear with me a bit more. We met up with the lovely Michelle Smith, and explored new hot pots and lots of old brown textiles. More on that, and some liquid nitrogen, to come.....

Karen

Jokulsarlon

2009-08-04T13:42:00.002-04:00

It finally dawns on me that the difference between a 4 star hotel in Iceland and a 4 star hotel in Toronto is.... the city that surrounds it, in which they can find almost anything a demanding client might want, is nearly 10 times the size of the entire population of Iceland. But I suppose that's a digression....

The night before the day of Jokulsarlon. This is the Vatnajokull glacier at....oh, 10:30pm from the beach near our hotel at Hofn. So peaceful....

And Vatnajokull in the bright sunlight as we neared Jokulsarlon.

Jokulsarlon is a lagoon created by the melting of the largest glacier in Iceland, Vatnajokull. It's filled with icebergs that have broken off from the glacier and are in the process of melting as they mix with the warm currents of sea water.

These intriguing boats will take you out into the lagoon for a brief run about, where a guide carefully explains the nature of glaciers and the formation of the lagoon, including the timelines involved. It is thought that the glaciers in Iceland were much much smaller in the Settlement period (ie, Viking Age) and that the settlers farmed areas now buried in glaciers. Imagine doing that kind of archaeology!

Glaciers are dirty at their leading edge, picking up the earth as it moves. When an iceberg turns over, having left all that dirt at the bottom of the lagoon, it is a beautiful crystal clear ice that slowly turns white as the sun crystallizes the surface. This is a freshly turned iceberg.

This one, Neil and I are debating.... does it look it a duck or a seal to you?

And speaking of ducks.... there is an abundance of wildlife living in or about the lagoon. And you know me, I'm a sucker for cute wildlife. Caught this cute baby duck in mid-shake....

And while we were hunting for seals in the lagoon, we caught this little bird of some sort in the rocks in front of us....

Found a seal! As the salt water of the sea mixes with the fresh water of the lagoon, seals often chase fish into the lagoon. It's an interesting mix of currents as the seawater mixes with the fresh.

Neil caught this artic tern on an iceberg with his meal in his beak...

Snorri had an overview of the icebergs "Why is it always water with these people?"

"This is so undignified...."

Sunday in Hofn

2009-08-02T16:39:00.005-04:00

Waking up in Myvatn the next day, I am much refreshed from the travails of the day before and it's a bright sunny day with winds from the southeast. Just over the hill and around the corner, we stumble on this site that we hadn't been expecting - Namafjall Hverir - another heavily loaded geyser site, much like the one near Gullfoss in the south.

The Namafjall region is close to Krafla, one of Iceland's still active volcanos. I start piecing together how geysers work, and their relationship to volcanos. Go, shoo.... look it up on Wikipedia. I did when I finally paused in the hotel at night. Did you know that Yellowstone National Park is basically just one huge supervolcano? That even just one explosion of a supervolcano could completely change our entire world literally overnight?

This is just one of the prettier pools of bubbling hot water, superheated by underground magma pockets.

This is a steam vent. I like this picture. I look so.... tentative.

Snorri just sighs at being threatened with hot steam once again...

This stop is planned! It's yet another waterfall - I don't really feel like that... that 'yet another' thing, because I really enjoy them, but I'm starting to wonder if my readers are going 'what another waterfall?' as you follow along.

This is Dettifoss. It is the largest waterfall in Europe in terms of volume discharge, and it is largely glacial runoff from the Vatnajökull glacier.

Neil pauses in the sunshine to enjoy the water flowing past him. We can walk right up to the edge of the top of the waterfall, and even stick our hands in the stream - it's cold!

Back on the road again, I've been making it my ambition to get some of the thousands of sheep that I've seen on film (ed - electrons dear, film is so old school).

We spent the night in Egilstaðir, where I wrote the last blog, but not the day leading up to it. It's getting a little confusing, the where and when of where we are, but don't worry.

Egilstaðir to Hofn is a long drive - 250 odd km, so we decided to skip the two waterfalls that would have been an 80 km detour, and just let the road itself entertain us along the way. There aren't really that many plannned tourist distractions on the east coast.

But the road itself.... now that's another story. It started to rain, quite likely the heaviest rain since we've gotten here. Very annoying. We found what looked to be a shortcut on the map that would cut off about about 60 km, with a secondary road over the mountains.

It's kinda twisty.....

.... but it was in better shape then the #1, and had some fantastic sights along the way. After we got out of the fog, that is. The climb up the mountain was ...eerie.
I could tell there was awesome scenery out there, but we couldn't see it. And then we reached the halfway point and started climbing down out of the mountains, and the sun broke out, the rain stopped, the fog dissipated, and there was a waterfall and picnic table pull over.

This is not that one, but yet another beautiful unplanned waterfall along the way!

I guess it's not surprising that there are so many waterfalls in Iceland, what with mountains, and glaciers, and all the rain it takes, all the freaking time, but... wow, there are literally thousands, all over the place.

I like this image, just because I got that blurry water effect of an open shutter to work so well, and these black (what we think are) rows of lava tubes.

Back into the car, back into rain.... *sigh*.

This is just the coast line, as we are starting to approach Hofn. It's still overcast and rainy, but the coast is getting... craggier. It's so pretty that I defy the rain to get a shot.

Then it's into a brief tunnel, only 1.3km, and out the other side.... the rain stops, the sun is shining, and there is our first glimpse of the Vatnajökull glacier.

We're in Hofn quite early, just around 3pm, so we decide to take a long walk around the town. Found another cat.....

And went to the Glacial exhibition, which was just chock full of science and yet very well presented - a mix of boards full of facts, frequently asked questions, a short film, and a trip to their rooftop to view the glacier itself with different peaks all laid out along the way.

In the exhibit, while I was still capable of absorbing the science.... I couldn't help but think that Marcus is just going to go totally crazy here. This entire country is a geologist's wet dream. You could spend a lifetime investigating the geology of Iceland and still not get it all.

Today, we head out towards Jokalsarlon for a tour of the glacier. Brrr.

Ummm...more days later

2009-07-31T03:50:00.010-04:00

Today, we are in Egilstaðir, where the sun is shining, and the wind is from the south. Finally, I'm warm.

Still can't find salt and vinegar potato chips anywhere 'though. I am almost ready to give body parts in exchange.

Let me forewarn you, this is a really really long post with lots of pictures. Take a deep breath and join us.

Now, picking up our story where we left off a few days ago.... in Holmavik.

We went to the Icelandic Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery.

Most of the witch burnings, and the practice of witchcraft itself, are a significantly different thing then what was happening in Europe in the similar time period.

In Iceland, there were only 21 burnings and almost all of them were men. It was thought that men were largely responsible for the practice of witchcraft.

Also.... the nature of the witchcraft was different. The little that I know about European witchcraft doesn't include such complex signs as the one below. There are dozens of examples of these in the museum and almost all of them are supposed to be written in blood from very specific body parts, depending on the sign in question.

We move on to the sheep museum, which was a bit....dry, in nature. The most amusing part is these bottle-fed lambs who accosted us in the parking lot, hoping to be fed.

Moved on to Blonduos for the evening, and loved the ocean. Our room had a quite entrancing ocean-side view. Managed to get a few shots of the bird-life...

In the morning we hit the Icelandic textile museum. I was disappointed in that there were no references to pre-1600 era textiles or textile tools.

This, apparently, is the very first sewing machine ever imported to Iceland.

This is Viðimyri, and it's almost a classic postcard shot. :) It dates back to approximately 1834 and consecrated in 1935 - what happened to those 101 years one might wonder? Most of the timber, and many of the artefacts inside are original but the turf needs to be replaced.

Oh yes... and there was also the Seal Museum. Yep, another museum. I'd smite him if only I could. I didn't take pictures at this one because frankly, stuffed carcasses just don't appeal to me.

Glaumbær Folk Museum - well, the most interesting part for me was meeting the archaeologists who are doing this dig. They are from U.Mass. and UCLA, and were just coming up for a washroom break when we arrived. There is .....wait for it Darrell... evidence of pre-1104 iron smelting. Neil passed on his card to the nice people.

Now, the museum itself. While I do recognize the value in preserving history.... I'm really just not that interested in 18th century anything. It's very well done as a museum, has great presentation value... but I got really grumpy photographing a million things that I just don't find that interesting.

So.... being contrary... here's the backside of the houses, and the husband. I always function better in the outdoors here. Errr.... well 'always' might be too strong a word, but more on that later.

Then we made a brief pit stop in Akureyi for two cables for my Ipod. Smart enough to bring the Ipod in the hope of plugging it into the car for music on the road, but stupid enough not to bring the cable in question, or the recharge from the computer cable. I am much much happier with music around.

It was a long drive today, with lots of stops, and I was definitely ready for arriving at the hotel, especially after getting grumpy at Glambaer. But we had yet one more stop to make.

Goðafoss (waterfall of the Gods) is so named because when Iceland officially converted to Christianity in 999 or 1000, the lawspeaker of the Alþingi, Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði was charged with the task of throwing his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall.

Snorri says "oh no, not me! I'm not a god!"

Neil and I have been taking some time playing with the camera to get the more 'artsy' shots, especially around waterfalls. I really liked the way this one turned out.

We finally ended that day in the Myvatn nature preserve, at a lovely hotel called Hotel Reynihlið. We planned to stay here two nights, because the day in between, we drove up to Husavik to go whale watching.

But we had some time before the tour started so we went to the Husavik Phallological Museum. Yes, that's right, it's a museum dedicated to penises. Most of them are like these... preserved in formaldehyde. But there are a few dried and mounted, and a few that have been made into other objects like a whip or a cane. There are even three letters, from three different currently living men, who promise their penises to the museum upon their demise. One of whom is the current curator of the museum.

So, whale watching then. Cue.... the theme to Gilligan's Island. "A three hour tour... the weather started getting rough... the tiny ship was tossed.."

Here I am starting out all cheery like in a tower of the orange waterproof jackets they provide. Note the calm water of the harbour behind me.

And here I am, after the first tossing of the cookies. Yes, the first... I spent the next 3 hours vomiting. It was.... just so very much fun. And I did take the darned sea-sickness pill they gave us, just in case. It just didn't work.

Although I was too busy being ill to take much notice, apparently I wasn't alone. Neil escaped the same fate quite narrowly, and observed that about half of the people on the boat were suffering the same fate.

And just to make it worse..... no whales were spotted. They offered free vouchers for another trip, but there is no way you'd get me back on that trip for quite a long time.

Neil did manage to take a picture of this comorant 'though. Apparently it's quite unusual in this part of Iceland.

Now... I didn't feel like dinner that night, but we did get to the Myvatn Nature Springs. A long hot soak in one of Iceland's hot springs can cure many ills.

Snorri thinks it's much nicer then that waterfall we threatened him with as well.

Karen

Day 2, 3, 4, 5 - Leaving Reykjavik, Sytikkisholmur, a ferry, Ísafjörður, and finally Holmavik (sort of)

2009-07-28T18:13:00.003-04:00

No internet access tonight in the Hotel Laugarhöll, so I'm writing this offline and hope to post it tomorrow on our way through Holmavik. (Turns out there was a very weak signal - posted tonight.)

The good news is that we have plenty of time here, so I can get caught up in offline mode.

Let's see now.... we left you in Reykjavik. On saturday, we arrived at the Mac store an hour after it closed and discovered that it isn't open on Sundays. I brought my Ipod to play music in the car for the drive, you see, but orgot to bring a "connect to the car" cord, or a "recharge from the computer" cord. Darn.

We had dinner at the Tapas Barinn in Reykjavik. Wonderful! Delightful! Sangria! I love tapas as a style more and more as I try it in various places and in Iceland, with its variety of products from the sea, it's even more delighful. Puffin and whale were on the menu! You can try a wide variety of things from the menu because the portions are so tiny, the arrangements on the plate are visually exciting, you can stop when you're full and not feel like you're wasting anything, and you can stretch the meal as long or as short as you wish into the evening as a result.

Day 3, also known as Sunday, sees us driving to Sytikkisholmur via Eirikstaðir. Eirikstaðir is a small museum on the site of what is thought to be Eirik the Red's first married homestead. It was occupied for only 10-20 years before he had to move on "due to some killings". The museum itself has a small staff shack, a set of washrooms, a half dozen full sized poster boards with the site history in four languages (Icelandic, English, German, and one of the scandinavian languages). Just slightly uphill from the signs is the actual remains - covered over again but with the wall outline shown as at L'anse Aux Meadows.

Neil tries to give us some perspective on just how small the house is - 4m by 12m.

A few yards off to one side is the reconstructed house where you find the re-enactors.

Their presentation is entirely in third person story telling. They talk through the story of Eirik and Leifr - birth, exile, new lands, all of it. The hall is fairly nice, and like the houses at L'anse Aux Meadows it cuts out the outside wind-noise perfectly. Neil thinks they have too much stuff 'though - multiple spears, a sword, multiple axes, many shields, sheepskins everywhere, bric a brac tucked in every corner, lots of clothes on the walls.

This nice lady (who's name we failed to get) humoured the crazy Canuck and held Snorri still against the wind so I could take his picture.

In Sytikkisholmur, we stayed at the Hotel Sytikkisholmur, which had sticky internet service that was nowhere near a power outlet (as mentioned in the previous post). Dinner was lovely 'though but I've already forgotten what I had. I emailed it to Vandy as she requested and it promptly left my brain. I'd check my sentmail, but gosh, I'm writing offline.

On Day 4, also known as Monday, we got up early enough to get some gas and to be at the ferry at 8:20am. I was up even earlier then I'd hoped because the bed was too hard, and sunrise happens here at 4 bloody am. I have yet to meet any form of accomodation here that understands the concept of blackout cloth or blinds or those of us afflicted with light activated brains.

Neil answered a directional question from another tourist just before we hit the ferry - in French!

The ferry ride was fun, if a bit.... windy. The wind, by the way, is all out of the north so far, so it effectively drops the temperature. Don't get me wrong - in Iceland, outdoors is almost always better then indoors, but it can take some getting acclimated. Neil tried to take some bird pictures while Karen hid from the wind just around the corner.

When we landed at Brjanslækur, we turned right and drove 6km to Flokalunda for lunch.

And then the fun began.

Where 'fun' becomes synomonous with words like 'terrifying' and phrases like 'oh my freaking god' and 'Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die!' Serenity fans should know that last one. Neil tried "I am a leaf on the wind" just once and I had to remind him that the character did die right after that line!

Let's just say the drive to Ísafjörður was.... a tad.... interesting. Lots of blind curves, blind hills, sharp drops from large cliffs too close to the road for comfort, steep inclines (up and down) - and did I mention narrow and roughly unpaved?

We took a brief break from the driving terror to visit, and climb several terraces up, around Dynjandi. This group of waterfalls is 186m tall in total and is comprised of many different smaller waterfalls on the way down, each of which is indvidually named. At the main fall off the cliff, the top spread is 30m, widening to 60m at it's base.

Just to give you some perspective on that height - see that road just in front of the fjord? And the little brown circle (aka the parking lot)? You can't really see the cars from this close to the top....

And here's one of us in front of the main fall, courtesy of fellow tourists returning the favour.

so..... this was Monday, and we lived to arrive in Ísafjörður. But I was so tired that even though we had great internet and a wonderful meal ... I went to bed quite early, and even slept through sunrise at 4 bloody am, right until a rather decent 8ish am.

Day 5, otherwise known as Tuesday, sees our inteprid couple driving in zig zags around these annoying obstacles called fjords - no straight lines here!

Also, a few amusing obstacles, known as sheep....

No special stops along the way here but the road was much much better then the day before and there was lots of interesting scenery.

Tomorrow, we'll be stopping at the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery in Holmavik and the sheep farming museum about 12 km just outside of Holmavik on our way to Blondous.

Day 2 - Botanical gardens and Vikingaheimar

2009-07-26T04:31:00.003-04:00

Again, blogging a day behind the pictures. I'd hoped to catch up tonight but the only place the signal is connecting is nowhere near a power outlet so I'm limited by battery power. There's supposed to be signal in every room, but alas, it appears to be not quite the reality.

Yesterday then, we went to the botanical gardens in Reykjavik and found a few things to photgraph. A pretty rock garden....

A humble bumble bee doing it's thing...

Lots and lots of pretty flowers....

This bird ....

......splashing around in this lovely water garden.

There were also children aplently pulling the leaves and sometimes the plants out of the water feature in the botanical garden cafe (not pictured to protect their destructive little identities) and dropping their plastic cars in the pond.

Snorri made it to the Vikingaheimer with us to see the Islandingur, a replica Viking ship. More on the museum and the ship on the DARC blog when Neil gets around to blogging.

And of course.... in Reykjavik, there are cats everywhere. Ragnarr the cat visited us again briefly this morning before we checked out of the Erikr Rauði. This kitty was found in a wool shop in downtown Reykjavik.

Day 1 in Iceland - getting here and jet lag

2009-07-25T07:09:00.007-04:00

So.... we're in Iceland. :) I'm writing on Day 2 actually but the pictures are from Day 1. I was way way too tired to write up the blog on Day 1. Jet lag is a real drag.

Snorri Steveson is a shared resource, carved by Steve from DARC. He's come to Iceland with us, and later he's going again, and to Denmark and England with Marcus and Jo.

First.... Snorri had to say goodbye to my .... err, our garden.

Here's Snorri at the airport while we waited for the plane. He's visiting the DARC website.

Snorri visited the Blue Lagoon with us when we landed.

The Blue Lagoon is a great way to .... attempt at least.... to recover from jetlag. It worked decently well last year...well, that and a nap... but not quite as well this year. There was a strong enough northerly wind while we were soaking to create cold currents in the water. And maybe I'm just not as hardy as I was last year. Jet lag had me bouncing up and down all day long - lost appetite, grumpiness, chills.... it's no fun. Good thing a good night's sleep will do wonders.

We did manage to wander down to the shore in Reykjavik for another look at the sun sculpture, Solfar. I was disappointed with last year's pictures because the day was overcast. This year.... lovely bright sunlight really loves this sculpture!!

That is almost the classic postcard shot.

Another shot... more whimsically artistic...

And one from The Man of the intrepid photographer doing her thing.

Trillium War, making beads, garden

2009-07-20T20:45:00.005-04:00

So... we're on the eve of taking off for two weeks in Iceland, and I'm trying not freak out about not being packed properly or leaving a clean enough house for the house/dog sitter. I've decided to blog about the past few weeks instead. Just to take my mind off of it for a bit.

By the by, I'll be blogging from Iceland whenever the spirit moves me, and we have internet access.

Back at the beginning of July, we went to an SCA event called the War of the Trilliums. As is becoming usual for this event, Neil made a bead furnace and invited anyone who wandered by to try their hand at making beads.

This is the furnace.....

And these are some of the beads that people made.....

We got 1/3rd breakage rate - 12.5 beads broke, and 25 survived. That's a definite improvement over the years, but it's still pretty high. And those that do survive are often pockmarked with ash in the process. I don't think we have the hang of Norse bead making yet, but it's fun trying. :)

Our friend Steve gave us this fellow to take to Iceland with us - Snorri is the suggested name. I've called him Snorri Steveson in the Icelandic fashion. At Trillium War, he was guarding our camp.

Coming home to the garden, we have some lovely astilbes in bloom - they are shade plants.

The cosmos and the clematis are still in full bloom.

We had so much fun with working beads at Trillium War and managed to take the furnace home intact that we decided to do it again a week later with a smaller crowd so that we could test a few things - reheating an already existing furnace, and videotaping the tesserae method.

This is a still from the tesserae method of making beads. Rob is just lifting one of the tesserae pieces from a piece of flat new charcoal and starting to wind it around the mandrel. There's more information on the bead making process on DARC's bead pages and on DARC's blog.

This is a delightfully composed and poorly shot (it's not in focus!) picture of the beads that I made. One survived whole and one didn't - it's in the background in two pieces.

In the garden and the living room

2009-06-28T21:56:00.003-04:00

This is one of Neil's pictures. He says the birds act funny when they know their picture is being taken. :)

This is largely what I blame for the last month's worth of fatigue. Imagine if you will, because I don't have a 'before' picture, the trim is 50 odd years of layers of white paint, and the walls are a pale taupe.

We've been renovating. And please don't get me started on hiring a person who said he'd get it done in two days, and didn't, leaving us to spend weeks finishing it.

Of course, the garden has been a pretty busy place as well. Neil keeps bugging me to post larger garden pictures - this is the round garden, the triangle garden, and the tomato garden in the background. Three for the price of one picture! Remind me to take another one like it in the fall when all the annuals are at their peak.

The long promised tomato experiment

2009-06-19T14:47:00.002-04:00

Before:

After:

The Problem: The already established 'veggie' garden is right out by the fenceline, to the right of the 100+ year old maple tree. Said maple tree is currently reduced to about 1/4 of it's root system (due to road and driveway work) and it's all in the yard. In the past few years, I've tried growing tomatoes out there, but they fight with the tree roots for nutritients and don't do as well.

Plus..... that garden space is increasingly being taken over by flowers and woad. I'm running out of room!

The Solution: A new garden space, in a raised bed, with fresh soil. Obsessive hobbies are fun. :)

Squirrels and Chipmunks and Birds, oh my!

2009-05-13T10:40:00.003-04:00

Okay... I've had these pictures and the Garden Notes paragraphs at the bottom of the post ready for two weeks, but without any other content here. Then I got busy.

It happens. Apparently... somewhere between June of last year, and June of this year, I managed to forget to take my vacation time. The workplace gets a little annoyed with things like that.

Anyway, the bird feeder has delightfully increased the life in our yard!

We have squirrels....

.......chipmunks,

....cardinals,

and blue jays, oh my! And I am having a great deal of fun with the new lens for the camera.

Now, the flowers here have come and gone, but they were beautiful as usual.

This is Fritillaria Imperialis - it's an interesting flower. It hangs down, as if from a pedestal, and in it's early growth - it stinks. The banner for my blog is a snippet of the flower from two years ago. It seems to be a reliable perennial.

Tulips, of course, are the mainstay of many Canadian gardens. This yellow-red combination is fairly common.

I had some beautiful pink tulips along the fenceline at the sidewalk, and some inbred redneck teenagers appear to have alternated between snipping them or ripping them up and leaving them on the sidewalk. It certainly makes me understand the urge to violent revenge in the human race - if I could catch them, I'd be tempted to do some damage to their heads.

Last year, I dug up much of the grape muscari that had multiplied and spread it out in a different area - lots of colour! I think I'm going to find some more and continue this line down the garden.

Garden Notes:
Temperatures unusually high for this time of year, but we're still getting the occasional frost warning for evenings. This is Canada, after all. I haven't bought any annuals yet. That's next weekend's project, I hope.

Planning a raised bed for the tomato / green pepper crop. Haven't figured out where to put it yet. (Have done it - next post :) )

Last week and this week

2009-05-03T22:26:00.008-04:00

Okay, I'm behind on last week's photos and getting ahead of this week's photos.

Chokecherry blooms and house - I really like the depth of field. I can't remember whether this is one of the wedding trees or not. I think so.

Okay....the weekend before last, we headed off on a new adventure in Peterborough. A friend arranged to have her teacher give a private class in wheel thrown pottery and a grand time was had by all!

This is the very first thing I've ever thrown on a wheel! It's not yet dry or even trimmed in this photo. It's a little lopsided.

But I love it. I loved throwing pottery! I came home from the weekend and started looking for classes/studio time here in town.

These are the hubby's hands doing his own thing.

We came home from the weekend to the neighbour, with a large branch of the maple that's just over the property line on her side down in her driveway. Close inspection proves it was a lightening strick! Neil volunteered to chain saw it and take it away. He's a sweetie sometimes. Or very politely deranged. Your choice.

And two fence sections torn out by the wind. Shame that isn't as easy to fix as a bit of chainsaw activity.

But on the bright side... two days away and I swear all the plants grew six inches!

First tulip of the season! (Don't worry, there will be many many more.)

Yellow Primrose....

Apricot blossoms with the church steeple in the background..... again, a beautiful depth of field.

And just for fun - my new view at work! After 18 years...... I finally have a window!

Before and After

2009-04-26T21:12:00.003-04:00

Playing with Photoshop today....

Before:

After:

Any thoughts?

Karen

Spring birds and flowers

2009-04-12T22:42:00.003-04:00

Playing around with the new telephoto lens again. I wonder if it will be enough to capture dolphins on our next trip to Iceland.

Both this photo and the next one are cropped from the original for a tighter frame.

Strangely enough, I found all the photos of the yellow finches on the feeders just slightly _over_ exposed. My usual problem with this camera is that it generally _under_ exposes pictures on automatic.

Perhaps it was the way the light glinted off the bird feeder? The sparrows (all hiding in the brush like this fellow) didn't have that problem.

Now, a slightly different problem with the sparrow picture is that it is just slightly out of focus. The brush is somewhat further away then the bird feeder, and this is an even tighter crop then the yellow finch picture. It's harder to tell just exactly what the camera is focussing on when one takes the photo.

Crocii, yellow. Second blooms of spring. :) The snow bells always come first. It is very very nice to see - it was a very long hard winter for some reason.

Canada Blooms

2009-03-26T20:32:00.006-04:00

Last weekend, we made our annual pilgrimmage to Canada Blooms, Canada's largest garden show. It's draw is a strange thing to me.

Is it the new ideas in gardening? the forced blooms giving hope for spring? The chance to stay in our favourite hotel - the Cosmopolitian? To photograph the city?

Forced tulips....

Water feature.... I love 'em, but I don't have the energy to maintain them in our yard.

I love calla lillies, but this picture is actually about me discovering another feature of the camera - being able to change the ISO to accommodate the low lighting on the show floor. I hate using the flash. I think it's rude to the people around me and I never like the results anyway.

Photographing the city.... usually it's the CN tower for me - either up from the ground or down from it's observation platform. But this time, it was the Royal Bank Plaza. On bright sunny clear days, it really comes into it's own.

The Cosmopolitian - delightful as always, but the food in it's companion restaurant is becoming more.... normal. We have another unexpected opportunity to be in Toronto in mid-May - could anyone recommend some high-end eating? I'm interested in a quiet peaceful atmosphere, in which the food is utterly divine. The ethncity of the food is completely unimportant to me - I want to try new things!

Spring!

2009-03-15T22:07:00.004-04:00

Spring is finally finally really.... almost here.

Forward Into the Past is almost upon us on April 4th. Go.... check out the website at http://www.treheima.ca/fitp
and if you're local enough, come on out and join us for the day.

We had a high of 12 degrees celsius here and I got some yard work done. I burned a bunch of wood. You have to see the yard to know why that made such a little dent but still made me feel good.

And there are buds on the cherry tree.