Big News

Double Rainbow guy is in Iceland.

http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/DoubleRainbowGuy


I have left Vallanes, in Reykjavik now. Cities are something of an alien landscape after the valley.




The Moment

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

Glitsky

Glitsky: sky (cloud) + glitra (glitter)

The past few days have been a smattering of ethereal atmospheric weirdness and crimson clouds, balmy balmy days and clear night skies with frequent northern lights. It all started with a luminescent formation in the sky midday yesterday that had the house all a-giddy and giggling, a kind of iridescent piece of fluff in dim daylight that looked a whole lot like mother-of-pearl floating in the sky.  It was incredibly bright and prismatic.  Today the glowing clouds crept again from behind the smoldering black and pewter that coated the rest of the sky during the sunset, a stark and stunning contrast.   Via Eygló we know now that these are ´glitsky´. From the Icelandic for cloud, ´sky´and the word for glitter. Glitter cloud.  In English, it's the slightly more clinical "nacreous cloud," or "polar stratospheric cloud."  Another beauty of the country—in Iceland, "glitter cloud" still counts as scientific jargon.  They are incredibly rare and happen when the stratosphere is cold enough, between -50C and -70C, that ice crystals begin to form and refract a rainbow of colors from the sun that lies below the horizon. I´m beginning to run out of words but I will compensate with a photo are two or four hundred and seventy nine, soon.

I still can´t upload my own photos but for now here is another from Yogan.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=147647468618048&set=a.145812825468179.24647.123593164356812

With the frequency of magical happenings it´s getting really difficult to think about leaving.

Heading to one of the oldest towns in Iceland tomorrow. Seydisfjordur.  Also, the homemade sauna had a test run tonight, all is working swimmingly.  A steamy birch-scented oasis in the middle of a frostbitten field.

low lights

3pm sunset.

Thanksgiving- to the right is the homemade Estonian tarp-wrapped sauna currently under construction.

Lunascape

I just walked home from work beneath a spectacularly star specked night time sky...at 5:30pm The sun rises by lunch, skims the horizon, and then falls out of the sky. But we´re behind a mountain so there´s usually a small standing huddle in the kitchen at lunch eating soup and shuffling in sync with the moving rays while it floats between the two southern peaks for a half hour every day. So really day happens somewhere between 12 and 12:30.
It´s been a while since an update but we´ve been busy over here in the Monster House in Vallanes. Thanksgiving  lasted to the wee hours thanks to a generous supply of gentle German Martin´s home brewed honey beer and a warehouse of bonfire-bound broken pallets.  There´s been a good deal of nighttime baking and daytime cooking with goods fresh from harvest. It´s my wet dream of a food culture but the constant flow of gastronomic pleasure is swelling my figure to something between a husky viking and a narwhal. No joke. the States might also have whale meat at Christmas. In other news:

a) Erik has fallen in a river
b) ...

If you´re interested in the Icelandic goings on, the country is rewriting its constitution because the old one is essentially Denmark´s with the name changed.  They´ve elected a committee that was announced today, updates will be aflowing.  For other news in Icelandic politics, wiki the Best Party.  Still my favorite example of successful satire.  In the face of a collapsed economy and a horribly ineffectual local government, Reykjavik elected its local youtube sensation and comedian, Jon Gnarr.  Gnarr´s party promised at the outset to keep no promises made prior to the election, including free towels at public swimming pools, polar bear for the zoo, a Disneyland, and Transparent Sustainability among other vague but hot political jargon. Too many have heard me wax affectionately on Jon Gnarr, but if you haven´t, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Party for the more in depth platform. Plus, they have a theme song. And it´s Tina Turner. Iceland, I do love you.

Also apparently Bobby Fischer disappeared to Iceland? Did anyone else know this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/arts/06arts-REMAINSOFBOB_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=iceland

And if you want to to keep track of the monster house, here´s a link.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Monster-House/123593164356812


    and a photo the french photographer in residence took at 4:30 am during a crystalline full moon last week.

.

I have to go scrape ginger from composted ginger peels and make ginger syrup while listening to a new age grungster play seasonal guitar inside the nightly rhythmic knitting circle. rustic.

Hveragerði

Next to Selfoss there is a town called Hveragerði, from Hver = hot spring in Icelandic.  It´s a magic nook between two mountains where runs a hot river and a cold river.  We followed the stream inland through steaming waterfalls and icy foot traps until it met the cold river and got in... bathed, and lapped it up like dogs. Like suckling sweet birch tea from nature´s  teat. 

Steaming river from the base of Hveragerði hills.

Heidi forging the river

Jana, Asja, Heidi und me. too many Germans. 

Hot Spring Horses

Geysir´s little brother.  

Did you know since the late 19th century they would pump geysirs full of soap to force eruptions? Lowers the surface temperature of the water. sketchy.

Gulfoss, one of Iceland´s highest waterfalls and the pride of the tourism industry.

And with that I was going to leave you a lazily taxidermied cat from the Geysir museum with a crooked eye but I seem to have lost him. 

In other news, it turns out our big plans for Icelandic Thanksgiving include the 'best whale meat in the world´ from a part time worker here who is also a whaler.  And home brewed beer.  And probably a bathtub of barley. 

Also, the farm began a boycott of US corn the other day as Eymundur declared the place GMO-free, officially.  Exciting news.  

Vallanes

The Plan— 438 km from Selfoss to Egilsstadir, two days, picking up cousin Erik in between and hitchhiking the whole way.

Update- We´ve made it to Vallanes in Egilsstadir (the farm). but hitchhiking the eastern portion took longer than expected leaving us stranded in lake Myvatn for a night, but under the wing of a weathered and spritely tour guide who brought us to his family farm nestled in a snowy corner of Middle-Earth-like Myvatn.  Turns out hitchhiking from Selfoss to Akureyri is an easy thing as the way is paved with small towns, warm strangers and lots of couples and fisherman and truckers and ice cream trucks and tour guides in highland monster Jeeps rolling along in between, whereas hitchhiking Akureyri to Egilsstadir is-



luckily a self-proclaimed master of crude Icelandic poetry picked us up the minute we stepped out the door and brought us the whole way to the front stoop of Modir Jord (Vallanes).

Internet here is sparse, so will be the updates.  Backlogged posts a-coming upon my return.

In the meantime, we´re living in a house with monsters painted on it and relishing nightly dinners from the garden and enough barley for life.  Also, this place is absolutely, impossibly beautiful.

Until then, meet the Icelandic Yule Lads. Like Santa Clause, only there´s 13 of them, the misbehaved sons of two ugly trolls, they steal, gorge, peep and slam doors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Lads

Although we´ve been told their manners have improved slightly over the last century. 

Norðurljósum

 So I was really excited about the lights we saw the first few days— http://heimalost.blogspot.com/2010/11/trying-to-limit-internet-time-but-for.html

turns out it gets better. 


But doubtfully better than this, Dora tells us she hasn't seen them this bright in a few years. lucky us, lucky us.

[click photos to enlarge]

At one point they took over the entire sky and rippled green to purple to red, it was something like a cosmic rainbow acid trip.

At some points they move fast enough it's hard to get a clear shot with a long exposure.

I almost evacuated a kidney right about here

Sadly out of focus, but the shapes are worth a posting