In all her finery!
Hellissandur, Christmas Day, 2019
Queen of the Sea
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: beach
The Four Eyed Raven of Hellissandur
In Indigenous traditions on the North Eastern Pacific shore, Raven steals the light. In Ísland, he collects eyes. The more, obviously, the better.
Arctic Terns Both Up and Down
Arctic terns.
They dive at your hair and scream. The screaming comes first. They’re just not much ones for settling down on land.
Even if it’s the Njardvik beach and the Njardvik troll.
Up in the air it is!
It’s ironic. One can get so intent on looking up to avoid them, that, um …
… one is in danger of stepping on them. True to form for a crew that doesn’t like land too much…
… they’re not much in the way of nests. Not really.
Really not.
So be careful where you walk, and if the terns start diving?
Don’t be there.
One Wave but Many Shores
The country is sneaky.
Magnavik
I like that.
Icelandic Erosion Stories of Hope and Despair
When I first went to Iceland nine years ago, the Icelanders told stories of how they lived on a new land, in the process of being made. You can see how that works, here in Njardvik, where with each storm the fjord grows smaller. It’s quite the problem, really, if you’re on one of the two farms in the fjord.
Now, Icelanders tell stories of how climate change caused Vikings (not Icelanders but Vikings yet [who were Icelanders!]) to cut down all the trees, and continues to victimize Iceland, making it pay for industrial decisions taken elsewhere. I miss the old story of hope, of rolling up the sleeves, doing something, and getting on with it. After all…
… either way, you still have to fix your fence. Might as well give your neighbour, the sea, a piece of your mind while you’re at it.
It is, after all, not a new story.
Keeping Tourists Safe on Icelandic Beaches
Here’s a beach warning sign I found at Dritvik on June 21.
Note the life ring.
Go at low tide.
Just a thought.
Slow Travel: The Black Beaches of East Iceland Coming to Life
Iceland is a country best explored slowly, and on foot.
Krosshöfði
When it is called “a beautiful country,” it means that every step is beautiful. Easy does it.
It comes to life as you walk through it, changes you, and remains within you.
Oh, What a Beach!
Héraðsandur. It’s for the birds.
Can you imagine any other country that would set a beach like this aside for the real people, instead of giving it to humans? There are many countries smaller than this beach.
Water Sorts Rock
It is the voice of water.
You read it instantly
Words are another thing.
Often you don’t need them.
Sea Eggs
It’s not just birds and turtles that do it.
Up on Vörsluvik, the sea gets into it too.Here are some in the very process of being washed from the land. 
Perhaps you can see a clutch lying in a young sea in the middle of the image? Of course, the sea’s eggs are the land’s eggs, too. 
They do it together! 
A Farm in Iceland 