Winter
The hay so gold
The snow so white
The sky so blue
The sun so bright
The north wind howls
The ice slabs creak
The deer stand silent
The coyotes sneak
By Siobhan Lally (8)
February 2013
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Winter: a poem by Siobhan Lally
Iceland, the Northern Lights and Buckets
Sharon and Pat at the beach near Vic, Iceland
riders near Vic
Icelandic horses near Selfoss, descended from Viking stock
It has been my dream (read Bucket List) to visit Iceland in the winter to see the Northern Lights. When I have expressed this goal to friends, the usual reaction is something like,”Whadaya, nuts?!” I recently turned 60, and at the end of a really wonderful party attended by family and friends, Pat handed me a book on Iceland.
“We leave on Wednesday,” he said. This was a Saturday.
We did get to see the Northern Lights, which as it turns out, is not at all a sure thing. We also stayed on two farms and were treated to tours and long discussions about livestock and farming in Iceland. Almost all of Iceland’s many tourists visit in the summer months (go figure) so folks had time to spend with us.
We learned that not only are the horses, sheep and cows descended from the original animals that came from Scandanavia in the late 800’s, but most of the people are too. Turns out the Vikings stopped by Ireland and Scotland to pick up “thralls” on their way to Iceland, so the people are of both Nordic and Celtic descent
Here are some photos of Iceland in winter..
farm with shelter belt to protect from rock slides
Icelandic ewes, descended from Viking stock
Icelandic sheep in barn, where they spend most of the winter
Pat with our new-found farmer friends
Icelandic cat and cow
Proud farmer. Each cow has a name, production records and lineage going back to the Vikings.
Sharon visits with a farmer about his sheep
church near Vic
Looking south to the sun over the North Atlantic
the mountains north of Vic
Two night trolls were pushing a ship when they were caught by the morning light and turned to stone
sign on the beach–sadly I couldn’t read it
Sharon with waterfall
our host and Pat with Icelandic sheep
Blue Lagoon bathers
not the Northern Lights, but sunrise near Selfoss
Ladder Ranch
