Good Morning All!
One of the finer things in life is a peach ice cream sundae and, thanks to my daughter Amy, and her husband, Joel, I was able to enjoy a couple of them this week. There’s nothing better than fresh, homegrown peaches with some vanilla ice cream…ummm…good!! Thanks, Joel & Amy, for sharing some of the delicious peaches from your very own peach tree.
Another one of the finer things in life is enjoying huckleberries. I was able to pick about a gallon of these hard to get wild delicacies from our property in Montana. We had our property thinned out by a professional forester/arborist a couple of years ago in the effort to make our place more “wildfire-resilient” and one of the added benefits of doing that was opening up the floor of the forest to allow other plants to grow and, lo and behold, huckleberries began to thrive. It’s amazing that such little wild berries like huckleberries are the tastiest of all the berries available. They, like wild blackberries, are hard to find and hard to get, but so worth the effort! Needless to say, huckleberries have a way of “hiding out” under the bushes, so it takes some effort to harvest them. But there’s nothing better than huckleberries on cereal, in pancakes, on ice cream…you name it!
I’m pretty involved in efforts to make our community in Montana a “Firewise Community.” It’s a program that encourages property owners to protect their land from the threat of wildfire by taking steps to make their places more “wildfire resilient.” Among the strategies employed are creating a defensible space around your structures (i.e. home, garage, etc.) and to thin out the forests/woodlands around your home to reduce fuels that would burn in a wildfire. Since we’ve taken steps to make our place more fire-resilient, we’ve noticed that the area is more attractive to wildlife (a doe and her two fawns came by the other night!) and native plants that prosper with proper sunlight available…plants like the wild huckleberry that I love so much. If any of you live and/or have a place in a rural/wilderness setting, it’s worth checking out the “Firewise Community” program. You can find out more about it by going to your internet search engine and typing in “Firewise” and/or “Firewise Community.” You’ll be glad you did!
Here’s some more from our recent Icelandic adventure…
July 10, 2019
We traveled toward Akureyri today, the next place we will stay for 4-5 days. We came upon Dimmaborgir, the site of a lava lake and volcanic craters. It looks like something out of the movie “Land Before Time.” A surrealistic landscape, to say the least. You can hike up to the rim of a volcanic crater here. Iceland really is the land of “fire and ice” and this plays is a great example of that geologic history. There are areas all through Iceland that shoe evidence of lava floes and volcanic activity over time. Agnes in the gift shop where I let my grandkids pick out postcards of their choice gave my grandson Bobby change in all the denominations of coins featuring herring, cod, lungfish, crab & porpoise. I enjoy purchasing and sending postcards to family & friends when I travel. It’s fun to share something of your travels with others. Bobby picked out a postcard of an Icelandic Sheep Dog, his favorite animal in Iceland. Upon leaving here, we went by a fence made of lava rocks (that’s the only rocks here!)…
Our next stop along the way was Detifoss, a powerful and wide waterfall. It’s situated in a canyon where the river runs through an old lava field and the river has carved out a deep canyon here. The Falls run over a high cliff in the river channel. You can see the mist rising from the waterfall for a long distance away. Since there are little or no trees here, you can see for quite a distance! The waterfall reflects the lava field surrounding it….white, brown, grey in color…dirt intermixed with the whitewater—impressive display large enough to create a number of rainbows when the sun hits the mist off the Falls. Loud noise when you approach the Falls…shows off its power. The waterfalls throughout our travels in Iceland were really impressive…a waterfall enthusiast’s “Disneyland” for sure!
Traveling from Detifoss Falls to Husavik along the northern coast…not far from the Arctic Circle here—lots of tundra reaching out to a massive delta that extends to the sea—an alluvial fan, if you will. A limited forest area in the tundra…very small trees dotting the landscape. You need an all-wheel or four-wheel vehicle to negotiate this stretch of road, but it was well worth it. As we were afforded magnificent views of the tundra, delta and the fjord stretching out to the sea. A bright blue, sunshiny day on the northern Icelandic coast. A perfect day in all respects!
We got settled into our new place to stay, a vacation cabin on a farm not far from Akureyri. A great place to stay with a great kitchen, family room and four bedrooms. Enough room to accommodate all of us (4 adults and 4 children).
July 11, 2019
Perhaps the prettiest part of our trip yesterday was our drive along the north coast of Iceland coming into the fishing and whale-watching village of Husavik. We splurged for a whale-watching boat trip that took us into the fjord along Husavik. We arrived in Husavik around 7:00 p.m. and though we would just travel on back to our place outside of Akureyri (a 1-1 1/2 hour drive from Husavik). However, we thought it might be a good idea to find out about whale-watching trips for the next day. The guide at the front desk really encouraged us to take their 8:00 p.m. trip that night, as she said the conditions were perfect, the weather was grand and the temperature was pleasant…ideal conditions, she said. The best, in fact, of the whole season…so how could we not go then! We were not disappointed, to say the least! It was a perfect night for a whale-watching trip. Teh sun was shining brightly, the temperature was a bit above normal and the water was calm. We were treated to an appearance of not one, but two, humpback whales who spent quite a lot of time feeding on small fish (herring) and krill in the fjord. They were magnificent to behold and they showed their distinctive tail fins. Our guide explained that each humpback can be identified by the unique, individualized design on their tail fin…how about that…God created a specialized identification system for the humpbacks! Judy, Andy & David visited with an engaging fellow from Stirling, Scotland who was an environmental engineer/scientest who was spending 11 weeks here working on non-native noxious weed analysis and control, path building, erosion control and other projects related to the environment. He was intrigued to know that we knew about the rock-skimming competition in Scotland!
Not only do we love Icelandic ice cream bars of various flavors…my favorite was the salted caramel vanilla ice cream bar (made by a company called Kjorr), we love a cookie/biscuit called “Bastogne” made in Denmark, I think. It’s perfect with a cup of coffee. In fact, according to a bicyclist from The Netherlands who we joined for lunch at a picnic stop close to a nature bath/hot springs—geothermal pool, this particular biscuit is served in many coffee shops in The Netherlands. This particular delicacy isn’t available in the U.S….another one of the finer things in life we found in Iceland.
As an aside, since we are talking about the finer things we found in Iceland, you are going to want to visit “Sandholt” in Reykjavik…it’s a marvelous artisan bakery & coffee house in the heart of downtown Reykjavik. It was a great way to spend part of our last day in Iceland. I had their strawberry creme pastry…it was mouth-watering…umm…good! One thing, though…whenever you order coffee in Iceland be sure you ask for a “tall” coffee or an “American” coffee…otherwise you will get this teeny, tiny cup of espresso!
Here is the funny question for the day:
Q: Why don’t they play cards in the jungle?
A: Too many cheetahs.
Here is the thought for the day:
“Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark,motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of live is Hell.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom” (2018)
Here’s to a great Thursday and lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)