To view the posts in this blog in chronological order click on 'Love at First Sight' at the top of the blog archive on the right, then 'Newer post' thereafter.
Note: click on any photo to view the pictures as a slideshow.
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| A group of holiday volunteers enjoy a midnight game of golf |
Iceland is an island in the north Atlantic so the weather is very changeable and can be wild at times. However the Gulf Stream makes it warmer than other countries at the same latitude. Spring and Summer are beautiful and the weather often very nice indeed. In the time I've been there I think I have possibly had more good summers than my friends and family in England.
My favourite kind of weather is that of a typical Icelandic Summer's day, with the temperature in the upper teens, a light cool breeze to keep you fresh and the warmth of the sun on your back. And - you get 24 hours of daylight, which is a life enhancing joy.
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Sunset, Ásbyrgi Canyon
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| Sunrise, Ásbyrgi Canyon a few minutes later |
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Ásbyrgi Canyon, 1am Midsummer's Night
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This was the culmination of one of the most beautiful drives I have ever undertaken. Having been back to the UK for a spell, I was returning to the north. Leaving Reykjavik in the early evening I came along the north coastal road around midnight. A low mist was creeping up the creeks and gulleys from the sea, only a metre or so thick, with swirls and curlicues snaking out from it. A blazing sun lay on the sea, its horizontal rays backlighting the mist, turning it to a fire so bright it was almost unbearable to look at.
Very beautiful, but no pics: my little digital camera couldn't cope.
This is a native Icelandic woodland, third week in May. Spring has yet to arrive. The trees are, despite appearances, fully grown. The native Icelandic species is the arctic downy birch, (betula pubescens tortuosa), a variant of the downy birch, (betula pubescens), smaller and with a contorted shape, It gets further north into the arctic than any other broad-leaf tree.(Thanks, Wikipedia!) I think I'm right in saying there are just two other species currently native to Iceland - the rowan and a sub-species of willow. This doesn't mean that Iceland cannot support other trees or has not done so in the past. It's a complicated story and I'll do a post on it at some point. There is an excellent introduction by the Icelandic Forestry Service here:
http://www.skogur.is/english/forestry-in-a-treeless-land/
Spring comes very quickly, greening the woods by mid June...
... and flowers cover the woodland floor.
Here, Iceland Conservation Volunteers (ICV) are reconstructing a woodland path which was seriously damaged by the high volume of people passing along it, and the scouring effect of water flowing down the hill.
The channel to the left of the path intercepts the water and directs it safely across the path to the downhill side.
A low mist lies across the Highlands on a night in late summer
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