Monthly Archives: October 2017

Succulent Iceland

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Succulents, which combat heat stress by a form of photosynthesis which allows them to store solar energy in a chemical form during the day, with their water-losing pores closed, and complete photosynthesis in the night, with their pores open, seem to be thriving in Iceland, which is not known for its heat. Luck at them here (bright green), in a colony of mosses and Icelandic purslane: a little tidal pool at the base of the wall of the Hengifossá Canyon.I suspect that greenhouses of snow cover, left empty by the effects of the wildly-varying height of the stream nearby, play a role here, but, really, I just think there’s room for extensive study here. I’d say it’s not just lichens that live in community in this climate, but all kinds of creatures, which do better together than apart.

After all, we are talking about an island which is an edge ecosystem: warmed by the Gulf Stream  while cooled by winds from the north. Anything is possible here! The whole country is a hot house!

The Out of This World Lichens of Iceland and their Gardeners

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When cliff faces are too cold, lichen can do just fine by growing in a tension with heat conserving mosses.
But tufts of arctic grass gnawed to mounds by sheep work just as well. Look how purslane, grass, moss and lichens all work together to create a balanced environment, conserving heat, gathering rain, relatively impervious to sheep, and even collecting soil ot of the wind. Clumps like these, and there are billions of them in Iceland, are like reefs on a continental shelf, or miniature planets in the cold of space. The missing co-conspirators? Ah…

 

The Earth Gives Birth

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Iceland is a “settlement” culture, not a “colonial” culture. This orientation continues today. There are times the Earth reminds the human body of its own birth.

Skriðuklaustur

At those moments, the human mind and body unite to give birth to a new self at one with the earth. That is settlement. It’s like taming a horse.

Mosfellskirkja

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The most beautiful church in Iceland.

Mosfellskirkja, Mosfellsdalur

And probably the most political. Like all churches, it is a face of the state. If you want to know what political power looks like, look here. That most Icelanders don’t actually go to church is not the point. It’s not about “going to church.” It’s about the survival of an ancient balance between outward and inward lives, i.e., in modern terms, Iceland. In other words, this, too, is church:

Hafrafell, The Mountain of the Sea

And ravens. Mountain of ravens, too.

It is about holding on. So, when you come to a church in Iceland, don’t drive by. Stop.

Kirkjubær

That’s the old church in the foreground, in memory at least. But, a thousand years, what’s that? Nothing at all.

Respect Iceland’s Internal Borders

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Icelandic horses came over with the first settlers. They know a thing or two. Here in Eiðar, you can see the technique for getting at the good stuff: you can strrrrrrretch that border, but you never, technically, really, for honest and for true, cross the line.

Also in Eiðar, you can see just how flexible this rule is below. The Icelander on the left has one hoof back behind the line, and the one on the right has the line running right down his midline.

No matter how you cut its, lines are lines and that’s it.

The Gang at Nýigarður. 

Sort of.

The Problem With Cairns

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In Iceland, the major architectural monuments from the past are also way-finding cairns of stones passing across inhospitable terrain. They were essential for commerce and the maintaining of a low technology culture in a harsh environment. They are now essential links to the past, as important to Icelanders as, say, the pyramids in Egypt or the Strasbourg Cathedral in France. In other words, they led somewhere, and still lead somewhere important, even as people continue to try to read them.

Aimlessness at Þingvellirvatn

Unfortunately, many contemporary visitors to Iceland, being humans and liking to make their own presence into lasting magical gestures, a signature of their kind, obscure the landscapes with their mark-making. Please don’t. It’s ugly and aimless. They don’t let you do it in Paris. Respect goes a long way towards creating beauty.