WINDY WIND

Dear all,

The sky and the lake wear the same gray dress today. Wind is collecting the summer greens and hurries them to go hiding. Slowly, but visibly more and more every day. 300 km away from here there were many more yellow leaves during the weekend. Still bicycled with Mum to our summerhouse and swam. A theater play about sea and an island welcomed the earlier dark evenings.

While searching more wool for the colder days, I remembered that I have used wool for other things than clothes too. A small exhibition done in Reykjavík with a small group in 2005. Lovely ladies of handicraft shops gave us bags of small balls of wool. With them we built our own wind with a girl called Nadia. With some red wool I drew a girl so big that she did not completely fit inside. Her hems in the wind. There was a parade outside while we worked. We were locked inside and could only see a bit of the trumpets and drums marching on the street through a window. Later a friend that I had not yet met took a picture of another friend visiting the exhibition. The last picture I found from an old email and it was taken by Þórarinn.

Cold fingers of the autumn are searching their way inside this house. Time to close the balcony door and say bon voyage to the sun traveling further, to the other side. Eager about the new season, the new colors, the new scents and sounds.

Have a calm new week with colors of rowan berries and rose hips (their tastes too).

Hearts, from me to you.

(Third picture by Þórarinn.)

RAIN OF GREEN

Just a small reminder (to myself) that under all those puffy blankets of starry snow, green things do happen. Just a bit later.

Greetings from happy drawing hands,

♡

1. Reykjavík, 2007 (Happily walking home with a bagful of nice comics from the best library.)

2. Þórsmörk, 2004 (The hottest day of that summer, glaciers were melting so quickly and we were a bit worried if we get over a river.)

3. Hveragerði, 2004 (Walked as long as the hot and cold rivers were combining the water perfect to swim. Ate pie laying on the grass.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MISSING YOU

Happy birthday Iceland!

Gleðileg hátíð, gleðileg 17. júni!

Just sending my best greetings to the land of winds and surprises. These pictures were taken during the summer nights in 2005, when the sun never set. Yesterday I remembered how I worked with the elderly and silver-haired people there. One of the ladies was very known palm reader, people traveled to meet her. Once when we were in the kitchen all alone with her, her cup of coffee and milk already cold, she told me: "Hey you, come here!" (Heyrðu! Komdu!). I sat next to her glancing her newspaper, we used to read the news together, she teaching me Icelandic or we talking about her childhood in Denmark or of her known painter father. It was one of those days, when the sky and the sea are the same color and the horizon is difficult to recognize.

Suddenly she took my hand in hers and watched it for a second and started to read my palms. Telling the truth and forecasting the future. I was amazed and happy and even this lady maybe never remembered it afterwards, I knew that we shared a secret. Next year I was there working again. The same happened. "Hey you, come here! But your palm lines have changed from the last time!" she said and told me a few new things, but the deepest ones still remained the same. I am not sure if to believe them or not, but at least it is one of the nicest memories I have to feel a smile on my face.

Thank you once again for your orders in my shop, Apple Blossom Meadow -print is almost sold out, I am in awe!

See you very soon again, have a good Thursday and see all the blue and red and white things around!

LITTLE DISAPPEARANCES OF TUESDAY

Everything is hiding today. The sun behind clouds. The new balcony flowers inside from the cold. Bird songs. The rosa thread I wanted to use for sewing this morning became brown instead. One of the rabbits hid inside a lilac bush this morning. Postman is hiding too, should bring some small news.

Maybe I could hide a bit too. Inside my jacket and a big scarf from the coldness while bicycling to the town to find some bigger painting paper. In a café from home. Inside magazine spreads from the café. Into new lands from the travel magazine spreads.

These images you may have seen earlier in my Flickr. They are from Reykjavík from the summer 2006. The girl living upstairs was hiding inside a tiger gardener. The wind hid in the grass and a small cat was hiding too but had left some small paw steps at least as the first walker on the new concrete.

Where do you like to hide today?

Lunch time, from that I do not want to hide. Bon apetit and Cheers with a tea cup!

Happy May, happy day!

UNDERWOOD AND BIRD GOSSIPS

Spring calls for long walks with provisions in pockets. (Nuts, dried berries and fruits, an apple, strawberry juice. Three small pieces of dark chocolate.) To see who is the most brave to show a hint of green first. Trees or flowers from the ground. Spring also calls to stay home, to paint eagerly while black lover birds whisper their greetings through an open balcony door. Spring calls to realize late in the night that a new day comes and painting and the bird songs can also continue tomorrow. Spring calls as a sound of rain and new wings flying to the roof, I guess it is a big blind date centrum there for birds. Spring also calls just to stay in the moment and watch the light changing.

These pictures are from the year 2007. The spring I stayed in Finland and the summer in Iceland. There were many streets to walk. Many rainy days to read comics under strange light blue NATO-blankets. And a friend tickling my soles.

Happy Thursday! Happy walks!

A LITTLE BIT OF MISSING

It is rainy and +5 °C today in the treasure island Iceland. Quite different it was in the summer of 2005, when I was there the second time. It was very green and an 80-years old gentleman called Halldór was teaching me the names of the mountains around Reykjavík. We sat by a coffee table and looked the landscape opening behind the window. So many mountains fit in one view.

Is there a place that you miss sometimes?

Edit:

P.s. The smell of Reykjavík is of course the wind and the sea, but also vanillin. Very strong vanillin as there is a cookie factory in the middle of the town. Vanillin to my coffee today!