Rink

Ice skating at Ingólfstorg in the heart of Reykajvík

I took this photo today before this evening's storm hit. I'm wondering how the skating was when the wind picked up and started slamming wet snow all about...I'm sure there were at least a few hearty souls braving the weather to get in a few minutes on the ice. There's always one or two.

A local insurance company is sponsoring this rink at Ingólfstorg plaza downtown. It's a great idea. The plaza is generally considered a metropolitan design disaster. It was intended as a gathering place for locals in the heart of the oldest part of Reykjavik, somewhere where you can rest your feet and chat with friends and such. The square is depressed a few feet from ground level and lined with benches, but nobody ever sits on them. It's become a skateboarders paradise, with short ramps, steps and rails to slide. No one dares walk through it for fear of getting a board in the head (the skaters aren't very good!) and aside from the occasional rally or concert, this is the best use its been put to in years.

Choir

It's that season again, when choirs of children sing angelic songs at Sunday services and Advent candleabras grace windows across the country. Strings of Christmas lights are twined through bare tree branches and thousands of tiny lit bulbs outline houses, making the long darkness of winter more tolerable.

Right now, at 9 a.m., it's nighttime black outside, with a few hours left to go. I like the coziness of the dark days, personally, but I thank the stars for sweet holiday music, warm scarves and the wonder that is electricity!

Art

Just a little something from a wall in downtown Reykjavik...

Bloom

My daughterss like a bloom (an ice cream eating bloom) amongst the foliage at the Eden greenhouse and gift store in Hveragerði, a half an hour's drive east of Reykjavik. Stopping by there is definitely a must for travellers, both foreign and local alike. They even have a banana tree or two!

By the way, I have reposted this photo in the size I want it to be in and was going to delete my last post to avoid duplication, until I realized that I would be deleting a small bunch of very nice comments at the same time. My solution? I've copied and pasted the comments into this post so they will be saved for posterity. Thanks you all for the lovely words!

Jen said...
I really love your photos. I had no idea what to expect when thinking of what Iceland would look like. Its really very beautiful.


Lovewine said...
Hi Maria
I'm also wondering about the blogger beta thing and you mention having trouble. I think I'll hold out as long as possible. When I left a comment on your last post I thought it was lost when it didn't show up but it appears to be there now.
Yay winter!


Anonymous said...
Just glad you're back posting. I have been a reader for a couple of months and find your blog very insightful, informative and entertaining. BTW, my niece is named Valentina and I thought, until recently, that was a name unique to our family :-)


Luis said...
Glad you're back posting. I always enjoy the photos and descriptions on your blog.

There is something so unique and appealling about Iceland and I feel you capture it very well.

Hope to read further posts soon.


Barb said...
I was just going to take a quick peek at your blog after searching for one from Iceland and now an hour later, I've had to force myself to stop reading and head off to bed. I thoroughly enjoyed every post and your photographs are stunning. I'll be back!


Faye Pekas said...
Your daughter is very pretty and it looks as if she is enjoying her ice cream :)

I've had the beta blogger since the beginning and just started using flickr. I don't have any problem posting from flickr with it. I do love the beta now that the bugs are ironed out.

(Thankfully, all is finally well with beta here, too!)

Pyramid

Valentina's uncle Snorri Ásmundsson, a very humorously controversial artist, sharpens his thoughts in a plexiglass rendition of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at the intersection of Laugavegur and Skólavörðurstigur. I'm sure a dose of Pyramid Power has given this ecclectic Icelander a serious brain boost, and us Saturday strollers a good giggle.

Concert

Here's just a tiny slice of this weekend's Iceland Airwaves life: a gig by a local act (could it have been Jakobínarína?) at the alternative music boutique, 12 Tónar.

It's been lovely, as usual, having lots and lots of visitors here on the Lava Rock, especially ones who are here for music, music and more music. The festival's really for the tourists, anyway. Get's way too crowded at our local venues, making it hardly worth stepping out at night. But like I said before, it's nice to see new faces on our downtown sidewalks, and always a little sad when they're gone.

Sport

I knew as soon as posted my last entry that the weather would change.

As a matter of fact I actually knew while I was writing that I was jinxing the whole Indian Summer affair, at least in my own universe. But I went ahead anyway, accepting that we were long overdue for a cold snap. It was time to whip out the mittens and get on with it.

Fall is actually my favorite time of year, probably because I'm a late September baby. When I came across these footballers practicing on a recent chilly evening, I got nostalgic; many a teenage hour was spent by me out on the Cupertino High football field rehearsing drill team routines. Over and over again we'd whip out our moves, dancing about to the music of Mr. Gomez's two hundred-strong marching band, our breath hot and white under the field lights and our brows sticky with quick-cooled sweat. Though waiting with frozen fingers for the woodwinds or drumline to grasp those certain tricky measures was never fun at the time, watching these boys run about in the cold made me want to be back there again.

So say goodbye to summer and hello to a new and decidedly snappy autumn season, full of its own uniquely falltime pleasures...