Alive and well...

Thursday late - 2am Friday morning to be precise. 

Well, after driving for what seems like a thousand miles I am back at base. Unable to sleep after too much coffee and the aurora tonight which were spectacular - aided by the fact that we still had the car, so could head out of the village and away from the streetlights. 

Iceland has amazed me every day. Just when I think I'm beginning to understand the landscape, the roads and the weather, it all becomes chaotic, diverse and unexpected. The snow we have had so far is really dry. Even if you fall into it or step into a snow hole (ha ha...) your clothes stay dry. The roads are mostly covered in ice. Ice around 3 inches thick, often with a bit of snow on top. The snow ploughs do a fantastic job of clearing everything in their path, whilst leaving that lovely, 3 inch ice rink for anyone without crampons to slip over on, and for cars to - wait for it- travel at 90km/hr on.... This is the norm. Yesterday, day one, every time a slight curve in the road was visible half a mile ahead, I'd use the gears to slow down in readiness for any potential skids or slides. Everyone else - yes EVERYONE goes at 90 all the time. It's terrifying!!! Considering we cancelled our Christmas party because our street had a bit of ice... In Iceland we'd be laughed out of town and ridiculed for a long long time. 

I won't do a chronology of the trip but give you a few highlights. It was really difficult to get good pictures of the myvatn nature baths because we were so desperate to get in, nothing else mattered. Also the front of the phone kept steaming up and finally it was too dark. 

I do want to take you through this experience a little because it was memorable and blissful. 

Imagine that you are really cold, but you are well wrapped up with hat, gloves, boots, coat etc. Now imagine that the -3 degrees are worsened by a harsh wind offering a further 5 degrees reduction for wind chill. Probably the best example I can remember is standing on Mam Tor in winter when it's really windy and freezing cold. 

Now visualise taking your clothes off - all of them. Getting in a communal shower in a cold changing room where the water is cool at best, then trying to get your costume/ trunks on when you can't feel your fingers. Ok? Feeling it?

Now step back onto Mam Tor in your cossie!

Fortunately that final painful bit before the total and utter bliss of stepping into a hot bath big enough to swim 50m in, is as short lived as the hop and skip over the frozen ground and steps. (As demonstrated by the guy in the picture) 

The sulphur smell takes a bit of getting used to but the ability to sit, float swim in basically - a hot bath, is amazing and wonderful. We stayed in until our fingers and toes looked like walnut shells. Getting out and changed was so much easier as the warmth had penetrated my bones and I sauntered to the changing rooms!! **Friday update. I now have some actual images from Ujin's carefully waterproofed iPhone!

I was the only one actually swimming. Most people were just sitting in the warmth. I did about 10 circuits of the nature baths.

This is a 'better' stretch of road... on our epic journey to the Myvatn area.

Coffee seems universally great so far and usually has free refills, and these looked fabulous - very arty colours.

One of the major highlights of the trip (and of my life so far - apart from the nature baths..!) was Godafoss waterfall which is about 50m off the main Route 1 road and insanely beautiful. We visited both days as day one was dull and overcast, but with very subtle grey/blue light. The following day was bright sunshine and gave a completely different feel to the place. 

The above image is day one and it is very difficult to pull out the land and horizon as it was virtually impossible to see any line. The colour of the water was stunning however.

Day 2 more land and definition. Both beautiful and a privilege to see in reality.

The three pictures above were taken in Hverir where the earth bubbles and stinks like the worst kind of rotten eggs. So worth visiting though and the colours, particularly when there's only snow everywhere, are intense. I discovered whilst writing this, that there are many more places near this where you can visit craters and other smelly muddy places. The sulphurous mud on my boots will not come off and the house stinks of rotten eggs....

This is one of the main streets of Akureyri, the northern 'capital' of Iceland. Note the size of the snow plough I'm standing next to... The road is pretty much the same as most of the road everywhere in the north at the moment. Covered in ice with a lovely layer of snow on top, especially to lull you into a false sense of security. And then fall over. I have done this so many times I've lost count.

I'm just about done, but do need to add that having a car was wonderful, not least because the Aurora were amazing last night. We drove out to the outskirts of the village to get some fantastic vistas and shots. At the end of the night, and when the car hire was just about finished, I dropped my housemate and another artist off home and then zoomed up to the dark place to take more aurora pictures. I spent another hour up there in the pitch black, freezing and managed to get these.

Even a little bit of distant light pollution affects the numbers of stars to be seen. The image below was facing blackness - the only light, from the aurora and the magnificent stars.

I think that's about all folks. Tomorrow, I have the exciting job of seeing a man about a fish.... but that's a whole other story.

Feeling a bit melancholic today. Maybe because I'm surrounded by such beauty but Steve, Matthew and Lizzie are't here. Missing you all, but I think I'll manage another two weeks!!

Love,

Aly x

Very short blog today.... sorry!

Happy Monday everyone. As the title suggests, I won't be doing a long stream of consciousness blog today for 2 reasons. 

I. I had to sleep in the studio last night as the wind was too strong to get home. I had about 2 hours sleep and am absolutely shattered.

2, I have to prepare an artists talk for tomorrow and I have just got back to the studio after showering and brushing my teeth at the house (it's now 8.45pm). I just hope I don't get stranded tonight as well. The internet at the studio is brilliant but I don't have any at the house, which is why the preferred place to be stranded is the studio. Unfortunately I just need a good sleep in a bed, rather than lumpy sofa, so as soon as I have finished thinking about the artist talk, I am off to bed. 

BUT, to compensate for the lack of words, I will give you a little taste of what Madam Aurora threw at us last night.... Yes, again, I was treated to an even better light show than the previous night. It all started around 3.30am, hence the lack of sleep. And because of the wind, the aurora were dancing around really fast all over the place. 

This as well as some extraordinary light yesterday and some lovely ponies! I will be back to inane drivel tomorrow!

Enjoy the images. They're not good quality for the blog, but it gives you an idea.

Thank you for reading. Wish me a safe walk back to the house through the snow, ice and wind!!

Love,

Aly x

Well the weekend's over, but what a weekend!

Before I get into today's blog, I wanted to say thank you for reading it! I've had lots of really positive comments and shares and I am enjoying writing it as it keeps me connected.

I will begin by saying that yesterday, I was really happy with the images I made and found it therapeutic to be close to the sea all day. The surroundings have infiltrated my system and I am enjoying walking around the village, seashore and beyond to the mountains. I haven't managed to get up the local mountain though as people just don't seem to do winter walking. I will get up there before I leave.... It's good to be with such a diverse range of artists with disciplines across most media. There are sound artists, painters, printmakers and digital artists all getting on with it and working ridiculous hours. By that I mean that they tend to spend all night in the studio and sleep most of the day. I can't do that as I am so enchanted by the light - sun or cloud as it is ever changing and I need to photograph it!

I have amazing news and hopefully some photographs you will like. Last night, in the studio, someone came in and said - "the aurora are just starting". I can honestly say that in the beginning, this was so unimpressive - compared with say, a sunrise or sunset here (or anywhere really). However, as my eyes became accustomed and as I moved away from the lights of the main street, I had the magical experience everyone talks about. It was worth coming to Iceland for this and if I don't see them again, I will feel that I have had my fill.

These are taken from my computer screen:

So at first it was difficult to tell the difference between a faint green light in the sky and a cloud, and then the green got brighter and started to move slowly in an arc across the northern horizon. The big orange object in the top left is a moving cloud.

After the initial arc, the green started to spread out and work its way slowly across the sky towards the sea. There was less light pollution here, so the colour was clearer and brighter. It was moving so slowly that it was difficult to see where it was going.

Back to just above the main street, so lots of light pollution. I wanted to run to the other side of the village to avoid it, but people said the lights sometimes don't last more than a few minutes. I wasn't taking any chances.

And then the sky just set alight with green. Most of the yellow in the lower part of the image is tungsten light pollution over a long 40 second exposure, but I quite like the contrast - even though I've toned it down quite a lot. I have saved a couple of my favourite images for when I return, but suffice to say, it was the best 90 minute show I've ever seen!!

You can imagine how I felt. It did actually make me cry. I have wanted to see this for a long long time but not managed it. Now I feel so privileged. 

So that was yesterday. Etherial, beautiful, sublime even. Today was..... equally sublime in a different way. But first I should mention the health risk of seeing the Aurora Borealis. I got back to the house at 1.30am absolutely hyped up on excitement, wonder and very strong Icelandic coffee. I lay down but couldn't sleep one bit. I resorted to watching 2 films on the trot, eventually dropping off to sleep at 5.30am this morning. Watching Everest wasn't the best idea I've had.

Which brings me onto my gargantuan walk in the outer reaches of the village....

This is one of the gravel roads out of the village with Spakonufell, the 646m high mountain on the left. It always looks so close but I walked for what felt like miles today and didn't get to the foothills.

This is not to model my enormous legs... but to show how low the sun is at 3 wish in the afternoon. It never rises too far above the horizon which means the light is like having the photographers gold hour all day. I had sunshine all the way today.

Obviously this one is to prove I don't have to have my hat on and hood up all the time.... It felt less absolutely freezing today. This was a little before my small accident......

The above is just a beautiful picture to stop Steve, Lizzie and Matthew from worrying about said accident...

And this is me, absolutely fine after the accident.

Well, I was walking along, taking pictures, minding my own business when I happened upon a beach, a beautiful black shiny beach, which was screaming for me to go and look at. I walked towards it via this little space:

Just after taking this photograph, I walked towards the sea and promptly fell into a snow hole which went up to my waist. I know! It looks completely flat, and the fence should be a guide..! but no, just beyond that little tuft about halfway up on the right hand side of the picture was a 5 foot drop, hidden by layers of fresh snow. Obviously as soon as I stepped onto it I went through and was sitting there looking like this:

As I mentioned earlier, I watched Everest last night (spoiler alert!!!) many people die! It wasn't such a good idea considering I was now stuck in a hole with no-one in sight (and considering I hadn't seen anyone on a 'busy' workday, I was hardly going to bump into the local 'getter out of holes' on a Sunday afternoon miles away from anywhere. So what did this intrepid explorer do???

I cried and had another little accident which will remain nameless. I did save the camera but couldn't get any purchase to move. However, from the depths of my memory I harnessed a technique I remembered from when John Wayne got stuck in some quicksand in a western. Spread the weight out, make yourself flat and work very slowly towards a visual point of higher ground. So with the imaginary sound of Van Morrison and Cliff Richard singing "get your feet back, feet back on higher ground" I got out. Hooray!!!!

I was never really in any danger. I could have waited for the snow to melt. I could have shouted as sound travels a long way or I could have dug myself out with the camera, or bag. So basically the moral of this story is, don't watch Everest the night before going out in the  Iceland hills alone after a heavy snowfall - particularly on no sleep.

Nearly done now, but it's interesting to note that after the beautiful weather today, I walked to the studio at around 6.45pm to get this blog done and nearly got knocked off my feet with the wind and snow. It's likely that we'll sleep at the studio tonight as it's too dangerous to walk back. I don't want two dangers in one day!!

Thanks for reading.

Love,

Aly x