Back to Work

I have done three loads of washing since yesterday morning. The only thing left damp is a very thick sweater laid out on a towel. I left my bit of the house in a shambles and all has been tidied up. But most of the day has been spent on the Schacht. Firstly I replaced a load of wood screws with the correct Schacht ones, installed a knob they missed out and checked that I could fold the loom up and moved it about on the castors. Then I worked on the draft for the first warp for the Schacht. I had selected a plaited twill and the yarn but realised when plowing through the snow in Iceland, that the repeat is about a third of an inch. So I looked through the stash and selected some silk and merino but it was in four different colours, pale blue, lilac, dark blue and dark purple which I will use as a mixture, mind you, a carefully orchestrated mixture. Oh and the scale of the repeat is now one inch.

Iceland Day 7

Today we all showed our five best photos. Very varied and no repetitions. Then some of us walked down to the farm where there were Icelandic horses. They live outside all year, are very tough and have two coats of hair which keep them warm. Then lunch then all packed into two vehicles and were driven to akureyri to catch a plane to Reykjavik. At the moment we are sitting in the departure lounge waiting.

We walked round the town, population 18,000. The population of Iceland is 350,000. And this town counts as large. It has a mix of cafes and tourist shops. And everything costs a lot. 

Iceland Day 6

Not that anything is happening today as far as I am concerned. It has snowed over night and the wind is howling around the cabin, the birches are frantically waving and everyone has gone out (mad) but me. My  excuse is that I am tired from yesterday (true) and have to spend time processing the 706 photos I have taken here (also true). I cannot claim to have done the photos but I have sorted them out into folders. We are required to provide 5 photos this afternoon and I have processed my selection. There are some quite nice photos but I freely admit to finding lumps of lava unattractive even under snow. My favourite views are of vegetation. Although there are some real hits in the waterfall department.

However what I want to do in this blog is to list the clothes I go out in.

Starting at the bottom, ordinary underwear, then silk long johns and longsleeved vest, fleece trousers and waterproof trousers ( which are windproof too) on the bottom half. On the top half a long sleeved T shirt, a down jacket, a heavyweight anorak. Plus neck warmer pulled up at the back 0f the head so the hat overlaps it, thus keeping drafts and snow from the back of my neck. And a pair of fingerless gloves which a cap to cover them. The gloves are a real problem and everyone complains. How can you get at the camera controls without having fingers to operate things? One man has gloves which are fingerless only for the first finger and thumb. I inquired where he bought them and it turns out he thought up the idea himself and persuaded his sister to knit them out of cashmere. Any kind person out there prepared to do the same for me? To finish off on clothing and then there are Teko socks and furlined (imitation) Goretex boots. My feet are always warm, so are my legs. My body is warm until afternoon when my arms get cold. Next time I go out, I will add another thin sweater.  Everyone is kitted out in a slightly different combination but all are layered. As a result, the group looks like an ad for Michelin tyres.

Path through a birch forest.

Godafoss waterfall

 

 

 

 

 

Iceland Day 4

In the morning we went to the big geothermal station where there are lots of lovely industrial building. But it snowed and the wind blew and, although I took 73 photos, I deleted the lot in the evening. We returned to base for lunch, hot soup and bread and cheese. Then out to a local lava field where we wandered about for a couple of hours. By this time, the snow had stopped and there was even a little blue sky. The problem is that once you have taken a few photos of black shapes in snow, that is it. 

Ruth is having the same problem. Yesterday I solved it by taking pictures of birch trees. And I think they are much better. We had wonderful trout last night for supper. I think it must have been salmon trout because it was as big as a sizeable salmon. And the locals smoke trout as well as lamb. We get them for breakfast along with boiled eggs, do-it-yourself waffles etc etc.

Iceland Day 3

the temperature dropped overnight from -5 to -12 and I wore a lot more layers today. It was hard work. First the locality was so badly hit by snow that the roads are closed so the tutor whistled up a Humvee (ex US army) which just drove over the countryside.


Hummer tracks in late afternoon after sunset

We went to visit two big waterfalls and that required long walks in the snow. And sometimes the snow was knee deep. Fortunately I had turned my walking poles into snow poles. There were such long distances involved that I thought I would never make it but I did and feel rather triumphant. And got some good photos too. After the waterfalls and lunch (hot soup) we visited a geothermal site where there is boiling mud and steam coming out of vents, very photogenic. The forecast isfor lots of snow overnight and no Northern lights although there are expected later in the week

The group photographing fumaroles in late afternoon

Iceland Day 2

Yesterday we flew to  Reykjavik and stayed the nigh t in a hotel. We started at 5am today. Flew  to Ayurik. And arrived at 0845! We were collected by the tutors, Niall and Charlotte Benvie and drove an hour to our hostel/cabins.except that we took in various sites to photograph and got in at 1700 hours.

So one large waterfall, one harbour, one volcano crater, one set of landscapes. And a lot of snow and incredibly cold. Here are a few photos to prove it.

 

Getting Ready

Tomorrow at 0800 am I leave for Iceland - for an eight day course in photography. I will be posting everyday so watch for my attempts at the Icelandic landscape. We are based in the north of Iceland and not touring around so no Blue Lagoon pics!! We have a list of 'you-must-brings' which is longer than anything I have ever seen before. Fortunately I bought most of the  stuff for the Silk Route trip in 2013. I did have trouble finding some of it and never found the head torch. The local DIY shop had a selection of three! What has surprised me is that I am taking twice as much luggage for 8 days as I usually do for 2 weeks!!

Today has been full of tidying up. Planting raspberries in the allotment was not on my list but they arrived yesterday with no email warning. But they are planted and lots of tidying up has been done. Most of the auriculas are now in the cold frames.

As to the garden itself, we have the big camellia in flower and the mahonia and the hellebores and one solitary daffodil.  And of course we have