Skorradalur

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Tómas M.

This gorgeous and evocative photo is of the woods at Skorradalur, in the Borgafjörður region less than an hour's drive north of Reykjavik. To see more of his work, please visit his photo site here.

It's in times like these (see here for details) that scenes of natural beauty, both in its growth and in its decay, remind us of the inevitable cycles of life, and that taking moments aside to re-commune with our outdoors is the very best remedy for the pains of our personal, and national, souls.

Tómas, who goes by the alias of Tomio Newmilk, is, as well as being a fantastic photographer, also a musician in the duet Quadruplos. You should check out their page here.

Trash

This photo originally appeared on Iceland Eyes in October 2007. It was also selected by my editor to be in our book, Reykjavik (you can read a review of the book here). It's a somehow evocative shot, and fits well with Vala Arnadóttir's image in the previous post : )

From the original post in October 2007: Something about this scene, even though it involves a trash can, seemed pretty to me. Probably the colors, and the idea that the owner of this double stroller has passed out of that phase of their life and is moving on. Out with the old and all that.

The city of Reykjavik has also been cleaning house recently, saying good riddance to our mayor of a year and a half due to a scandal involving a public utility and private profiteers. It's a complicated series of events involving power plays, money and alliances that, frankly, are beyond my desire to understand. Ahh, politics. Sometimes a simple scene like the one above and the story it seems to tell are very welcome in our often overly-convoluted civic lives.

Our political situation is not any prettier three years later but is, as a matter of fact, much worse. As usual, I will let the Reykjavik Grapevine tell you all more about our latest protests.

In the meantime, perform a little random act of kindness, ok?

Eyðibýli

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Vala Arnadóttir

Vala writes: On one of my trips last summer we found an old abandoned summer cottage by a beautiful lake called Hreðavatn in Borgarfjörður. The human residents had abandoned this lovely orange and pink cottage but these adorable sparrows had moved in and made their nest on the kitchen shelf next to the coffee-filters. The children thought this to be such an adventure. we found little treasures in the house, like old colouring-books, retro tin cans with psychadelic- and disney-prints and handpainted platters. On the second floor there were 6 built-in bunks for children: this had obviously once been a house filled with children, laughter and good memories. My children were so sad that "the family" had abandoned this adorable cottage and left it to rot that we decided to leave the treasures to honor the children if they would change their minds and come back for them..

Away

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Gustavo Marcelo Blanco

Gustavo writes: I was living close by this street that leads up to Hallgrimskirkja and always wanted to capture it. The name is an inside joke. I gave it to a friend as a wedding present. I have actually seen it on the wall in his house. I shot it digitally twice, the later time off the computer screen, hence the funky effect.

The street is Skothúsvegur, which crosses over Tjörnin, the Reykjavik city lake. The name derives from the city's Shooting Club, which had it's headquarters at Tjarnagata 35, a house that sits just off of this road.

Many thanks to Gustavo, who currently resides in Amsterdam where he is earning his BA in Filmmaking (he is also a movement recoding artist), for supplying this beautiful image. Please be sure to check out more photos by him at Squared Image Dump.

Perception

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Today's guest photographer is Valentína Jóhannsdóttir. This shot is an absolute mind-bender, and I was completely unable to see what the photo was of until she told me. Can you guess? *

How we experience our reality depends, of course, on how we perceive it. For many here in Iceland, the current reality is not such a pleasant one: the state of the nation is still undefined, and heading into a third winter of discontent does not seem like a happy prospect. (For a decent summation of how things stand here on the Lava Rock, read this interview in the Reykjavik Grapevine with Iceland's Minister of Finance.)

We can choose, though, to see things from another angle, and appreciate the luxury of living on this surprisingly verdant island. We are blessed, for example, with what so many do without: clean water. For that alone, I give thanks every day.

*It's a grassy lawn, bleached by sunlight, blued by shadows and smudged by movement! By the way, Valentína is my 13 year old daughter : )

Still

Our gorgeous Mio, and the 75 year old Bing & Grøndahl porcelain figurine I found of him at the amazing Fríða Frænka antique store in the heart of Reykjavik, decorate our living room window. How a Danish artist of the early twentieth century could have known our cat so well, I'll never know : )

Bay

Bay, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

A young tourist couple sat at the edge of Faxaflói Bay last Sunday evening enjoying the 9 pm sunshine and a good view of Paul Allen's yacht, Octopus which anchored in the waters off of Reykjavik for a week-long treasure hunt (read more here.)

And speaking of big boats, could data ships be a potentially viable concept here as they are in San Francisco Bay? We've got the energy...