Balloons

A balloon tower rose over Austurvellir on Saturday, part of the Jónsvaka Midsummer Fesitval. For me, the fascination lay not just in how the breeze played with the ephemeral structure, but in how seemingly minute additions, in this case one small balloon at a time, over time, created it. It is the tiny moments, possibly considered inconsequential in themselves, that add depth to our histories by bridging the spaces between the more dramatic and defining events of our lives.

Pink

With all the words floating about in the ether, both spoken and written, words that inform, report, damage, debate, judge, describe, as well as those that thankfully admire, respect and heal, I think there is simply nothing much more to communicate than what this bloom signifies.

In the words of Tolle, "Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerge...[are like] messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless." 

Beyond language, beyond society and petty things, beyond even the human capacity to create, and recreate, a simple blossom says it all.

Sheep

As two major planets of great mass and affect move into the sign of the Ram for the first time in decades, it seems appropriate to display a very content ewe and her lamb, who posed for us at a farm just north of Reykjavik. This proud mother and her offspring are the latest in a long line of Icelandic ovis aries, whose history as a breed apart has mirrored that of people on this island and has, in all actuality, been the main reason for any human success this past millennia.

For more on the beast, read this Wikipedia article, and for anyone interested (visiting families with children, for example) a trip to this farm, named Hraðastaðir, in Mosfellsdalur can be arranged with a simple phone call to Nína at 820-1829.