Happy New Year dear readers and thanks for following our blog. Our resolution is to continue posting photos of the birdlife around us and bringing you photos and info from interesting places we visit.
Today there is a little more snow than yesterday and the storm Frank has left the country. It is a beautiful first day of the year 🙂
Glymur in Hvalfjörður is the second highest waterfall in Iceland, 198 metres high. It is about an hour’s drive from Reykjavík, the capital, a trip worth taking. The hike from the parking area takes about 2 hours, more if you go the roundtrip. The trail is marked and there are footpaths. See: Best hiking trails
On the way you pass a cave and have to go over a creek below the waterfall. The climb is sometimes a bit strenuous and can be muddy and rocky in places so you need good walking boots.
For the round trip, that takes up to 4 hours, you have to go over the River Botnsá above the waterfall. There is no bridge there.
– This is a trip worth taking in the summer time 🙂
Christmas Day was cold and windy in Selfoss. Lots of snow and temperatures below zero, – 9°C. The same can be said for most of the country but in the North temperatures went down to – 20° C.
Reykjavík is the only capital in Europe to have snow this Christmas. That is unusual for this time of year because in most capitals in East Europe and Scandinavia that would be the norm.
The birds do not go without at Christmas. Delicious red apples are on the menu on a cold and windy Christmas day, with temperatures around – 9° C.
Jól is the Icelandic term for Christmas. The word stems from the Nordic word Yule which refers to the old solstice celebrations when the Vikings celebrated longer days and coming of the new year. Season’s Greetings to all of you. “Peace on earth and goodwill to all men”
One of the busiest days of the year, Saint Thorlakur’s Day, and the Christmas preparations are almost finished. It is beautiful outside, temperatures around zero, it is calm and snow is falling lightly. Tomorrow the children and their other halves, grown up people now, will come and spend Christmas Eve with us. Merry Christmas 🙂
Today is St. Thorlakur’s Day. Thorlakur was an Icelandic bishop in Skalholt and died on December 23, 1193. This is the day for last minute gift shopping, decorating the Christmas tree and many eat the traditional fish Skate, which smells horrible.
Three days to Christmas. It snowed today and the forecast predicts temperatures below zero. In the North it will be the coldest, with temperatures down below minus 20°C. In the South it will be warmer with temperatures down to around minus 10-12° C.
We call the shortest day and the longest night of the year winter solstice. It is when the sun’s elevation in the sky is at its lowest which will be tonight at 4:49. So December 22 is the shortest day of the year.
In Reykjavík the sun crawls over the horizon at 11:23, it is at its highest at 13:26 and sets again at 15:30. After tomorrow the days will start to get longer, something almost everyone looks forward to. Happy Solstice 🙂
This is one of the Fieldfares that has made the garden his home in the last month. He is all puffed up and self-important. Perhaps he is eagerly awaiting springtime but we are sure that no one will consciously invade his realm when he is in this mood.