Rod Summers Iceland 2010

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Comment by ginny lloyd on June 24, 2010 at 1:55pm

Love the reports Rod - glad to see the landscapes. Have always had a desire to go to Iceland and now I see it thru your eyes.

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on June 24, 2010 at 1:11pm

Hello Rod! Great pics...mountain, road, forest! and especially the town of say-what?: Seydisfjordur. It looks so crisp and clean, like a toy village under the Christmas tree...lovely! 'Glad to read that the baa, baaaa, baaa sheep-shit performance went well! they ate it up! ;-)
Have a safe journey back to Reykjavik.
All the best,
Katerina

Comment by Ana Spinu on June 24, 2010 at 8:20am

Hi Rod!

baaah.....baaah....baaaah.... so that your snake road photo meets his equivalent , Transfagarasan road, from my country.

Regards!

ANA

Comment by Rod Summers on June 23, 2010 at 11:22pm

It’s amazing how much can happen in just two days! 22 June 2010. This morning I drove with Saevar from Ytra Lón to Saevar and Halla’s rented holiday house in Seydisfjördur, a three hour drive which included driving up and down two multi-hairpin laden mountain one of which was 1665 meters high and the other covered in a thick mist with visibility often down to less than ten metres… and we did the misty one twice because… ah wait a moment, I’m getting way ahead of myself, let’s get back to yesterday morning.
Mid summer’s day. The big day! The grand opening of the new accommodation blocks and the performance but first a lot of tidying up and beautifying. The Seeds planted more flowers and made wood and stone steps leading into one of the blocks, Karlotta and I mowed the grass lawns and verges whilst Mirjam and Jan put snacks in suitable situations. Aðalheiður arrived with four sheep statues and placed them in the home field with help from Sverrir.
At 9PM the first visitors began to arrive and in no time the crowds had grown to being 40 to 50 strong, Mirjam gave a short speech and then gave the gathered throng a guided tour of both the new complexes. Within 20 minutes it was time for us to do the performance which was a lot easier to conceive and perform than it is to describe. Basically there were nine of us; me, Saevar and the 7 Seeds, [Rudolfs/Latvia, Paulo/Portugal, Loulou/England, Susi/Germany, Rosa/Finland, Soo Hee/South Korea, Eugenia/Italy] we were in the sheep barn each with one of those toys that is a small cylinder that when inverted makes a ‘baaaah’ sound. I walked out of a small door with a ramp, looked around made one ‘baaaah’ and then scurried back into the barn. I waited a minute before coming back out again this time with Saevar just behind me closely followed by the seven Seeds all in a line each one making the ‘baaaah’ sound at random. We walked slowly looking around like sheep just released from their winter’s sojourn in the barn. The audience started to laugh. Still in a line we walked out of the gate into the meadow land. At that point Mirjam and Sif walked amongst the audience giving out sheep-shit cakes and Aðalheidur’s daughter Brák handed out giggle sticks to the children. We the performers, now separating up, continued wandering into the meadow until I thought that we could no longer be heard or seen which meant the performance was finished. We then walked back to where the crowd was scoffing sheep-shit cakes and the kids were making a lot of noise and there we received a jolly good round of applause. In no time all 150 cakes were gone. Jan the Man made a short video which I will post on YouTube soon enough.
The crowd got back into their cars and drove off to their various homes, we went in and had some hot chocolate with the Seeds and then back to the terrace of my number 9 apartment and get the last look at the mountains.
(photo)

Saevi and I talked until late before hitting the hay. I read for an hour and then struggled to get to sleep as my feet were cold, eventually I threw my Icelandic sweater over them and dropped off.
The following morning it was time to say goodbye to all at Ytra Lón, and this the forth goodbye was no easier than the first three were. I would like to thank them here for their wonderful hospitality and friendship. Any of the readers of this blog contemplating visiting Iceland and in search of a place with perfect peace should come to Ytra Lón.
Mirjam gave us a huge frozen leg of Ytra Lón lamb, Sverrir and Mirjam made it clear that I would be welcome any time I wanted to return… and I will be back, and then Saevi and I loaded the car and headed south. We stopped for a hot dog in Thorshöfn and set course for the mountains and pastures that separated us from Saevi’s family, Halla, Una and Isaak in their rented holiday accommodation in the steep walled, deep fjord village of Seydisfjördur which is where the ferry from mainland Europe arrives each Thursday. Halfway between there and here we arduously climbed the mountain Dyjafjall navigating steep inclines and the hairiest of hairpin bends, the snow lay all around deep and crisp and often very bumpy, we were too busy maintaining our forward motion and staying on the road to take any photos. We did stop just after the summit of 1665 meters and I took a few photos.
(photo)

Then onward, ever onward heading south until we stopped for a hotdog in Egilsstaðir. Now there was only one heath and a lofty mountain between us and Seydisfjördur and that mountain was blanketed in a really thick mist so that the 20 kilometre journey took twice as long as expected. But eventually we made it here and after only a short break for a mug of tea and a pancake with fresh whipped cream and strawberry jam we were back in the car and heading back up into the mountain mist and further out to have a look at Skriðuklauster in Fljótsdalur, once the residence of the famed 20th century literary man Gunnar Gunnarsson and which is now an art centre where our mutual friend Dalli is exhibiting one of his works of Icelandic mountain ranges cast in aluminium. In the restaurant I had green/peach tea with dandelion syrup(!) before we headed off for the largest forest in Iceland. For those who believe there are no ancient forests in Iceland think again! The forest is large, or rather long as it is situated between the mountains and the lake but certainly extensive and contains some venerable trees.
(photo)

Now well tired we drove back and once more ascended and descended the foggy high road to get back here and put the leg of lamb into the oven to roast for nearly three hours... we ate just after ten. Whilst Halla and Una washed the dishes Saevi and me talked music until bedtime. My pillowcase has a portrait of Barbie on it.
This morning I awoke and wrote this little song:
My head hit the pillow
I went out like a light
I haven’t slept so well
Since the previous night
Yes my head hit the pillow
Barbie gave me a kiss
And I didn’t wake up
‘til I needed a... cup of tea.
This morning Seydisfjördur is grey with low cloud, not the best day to be making photos so I walked quickly around, said hello at the Internet cafe and asked if it is OK that I come back this evening to post this blog; you have it so it was, I took a few quick shots with the Sony camera (photo)

and came back to the house. The family are away visiting Saevar’s sister who lives in this area so I have just made five individual shepherd pies with the left-over lamb (photo)

and now I’m going to take a bath, can’t remember the last time I did that as at home we only have a shower.
Tomorrow we take the long drive of something like 900 kilometres all the way back to Reykjavik, see you there. Now I need to lay the table they will be home soon.
So here I am drinking rum in an internet cafe in Seydisfjordur and you are there. The shepherds pies were delicious as are all of you... bless bless

Comment by Ana Spinu on June 21, 2010 at 8:28am

Hi Rod!

You speak so nice about Aðalheiður Artist. You made me curious on her sheep sculptures. Good luck on 21 st of June, now that your team is 'on the road' again.

Regards.
ANA

PS: Waking up in the morning...not my favorite action too :D

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on June 21, 2010 at 8:26am

Yeah! Rod, you have 150 sheep-shit cakes! Looking good! :-)
Imagine, Kelloggs' and the midnight sun...blows my mind what globalization has done. May you have a great success with the
performance, and we wait for the video once you return to
Reykjavik. Have a wonderful time, tonight: mid-summers'...
with Rod Summers!

Comment by Rod Summers on June 21, 2010 at 1:06am

Is it necessary to have a reason to make an art performance on a sheep farm 15 kilometres from the nearest village? I don’t think so but I have one anyway. Tomorrow the 21st of June, Mid-summers night, is the official opening of the new apartment accommodation, I posted a photo here two days ago. The grand opening was even announced of Icelandic national radio news and the VEC Vikings had a mention. People will come from far and wide to attend the opening ceremony which will end with the performance ‘Sheep’ by the VEC Vikings (Helgi, Nokvi, Rod & Saevar) and 5 volunteers (and I use the term loosely) from the International Seeds group. We will make video and photos but there is every chance I won’t be able to post them on this blog until I am back in Reykjavik as after the performance; which will end late, we will celebrate and then on Tuesday morning I am going travelling along the north coast with Helgi and Nokvi for a few days OR along the east coast with Saevar, so this could well be the last blog for a few days.
Last night I moved from my room in the original hostel into Nr. 9 of the new apartments so now I no longer have to share a kitchen and shower... such luxury, I even have a TV in here, not that I am going to watch it but there it is. I walk out of the door of the apartment and there is a sun bathed terrace, a nesting Redwing, a Ptarmigan on the roof and an uninterrupted view across the tundra looking west, well I say uninterrupted but at this moment there are the Seeds out there planting trees for Sverrir’s Forest.

And today, of course, I am going to follow Kate’s recipe and make 100 bite sized sheep-shit cakes. Also today Aðalheiður will be bringing her sheep sculptures and the students from the art school in Akureri should be arriving. I met Aðalheiður in Hjalteri two years ago, she is a powerful artist and I am looking forward to meeting her again.
Last night the midnight sun was spectacular, this photo was taken at 5 minutes passed midnight.

It is as though every day up until today has been a day of rest but, by Oðin, this day was a busy one. It started in the morning, never my favourite time of the day, when I had first to wake up and then get out of bed never my favourite set of actions. I took a shower, never my favourite activity and put on clean clothes, an action that turned out to be an error of judgement.
The first job of the day was to make the sheep-shit cakes, Mirjam went and got three volunteers for me from the ‘Seeds’ group and in something less than 2 hours, and with a huge debt of gratitude to Katerina Nikoltsou for the recipe and helpful hints,

the four of us had a grand collection of about 150 cakes, I have a photo of that.

By now I was feeling well satisfied with myself, cakes made I can take the rest of the day off and blog to my heart’s content... but then Mirjam had bought 30 or 40 flowering plants which needed planting out and around to add some extra colour to the place, the gardener in me surfaced and I spent the next several hours working with Jan the working man to plant to flowers, here it is now 11 PM and I have just sat down with a mug of tea and two biscuits to out the blog.

Oh but I nearly forgot... I was looking around for a suitable container for the last seven flowers when my mobile croaked and there was Saevar on the line with some seriously sad news. Helgi and his son Nokvi, both elemental players in the performance were on their way here in Helgi’s car when said vehicle died on him... condolences to... but no flowers please. I had to quickly come up with a plan ‘B’ and ... ah fortune she smiles upon me... I need 9 persons for the performance, that me, Saevar and there just happens to be 7 of the International Seeds group here, and they have agreed to work with me. Just a pity for Helgi and Nokvi as I know they were looking forward to being here.
It’s getting very late, Sverrir has crossed the peninsula to collect his last 3,000 trees and won’t be back until about one so the network would be available until then but I am tired after such a busy day so I’ll convert the photos and get this posted.
I repeat there may now be a break of a few days but I will be back.

Marie 'Rust never Sleeps' was an album title of Niel Young back in the 70s or perhaps 80s.

Comment by RJ - Moderator on June 20, 2010 at 6:58am

Nature makes beautiful artworks. We only have to see them. Thanks for sharing that Rod!

Comment by Rod Summers on June 20, 2010 at 12:20am

Today no long winded blog because I went with Sverrir and Jan and the International Seeds group right out to the very end of the peninsula, that is 40 kilometres of extremely bad road and 40 back that is... well you can work it out for yourselves. So instead a small selection of the 100+ photos I took today begining with:

meadow park

One of Sverrir's 15 rams

Rust never sleeps

Gannet rock

Fulmar

Driftwood

At the end of the world at the very end of the Langaness peninsula looking out to the confluence of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean.

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on June 19, 2010 at 10:25am

Yummy, can smell the curry way over here, Rod.
Great blue-sky Iceland, but from the photos of the village,
to and from, one understands why Sverrir wants to plant
thousands of trees :-)

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