It's Like We've Always Known Winter This Way

Out at Seltjarnarnes on a lovely crisp winter's day 

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I've taken quite a few Iceland Eyes photos out at Seltjarnarnes over the past twelve years, including shots of midnight golf and walks along its beach, that it feels a bit like cheating to share another one.   It's such a photogenic spot, though, and so close to the Reykjavik city center where we live. 

This isn't the greatest picture in the world, but I chose it for a few reasons. For starters, it shows
the snow cover we were graced with a week ago when Reykjavik got more of the "white rain" in one 24-hour period than ever recorded and which, very surprisingly, is still here. It's a crispy, dry, packed snow as temperatures have stayed below freezing for the last seven days. Having that combination, frost and heavy snow, at the same time is actually so common here in the south of Iceland. 

Another reason I'm sharing it is because I took it at the sundial that's at the highest point in Seltjarnarnes at just about 5pm. It showed me that the sun was sitting at exactly southwest in the crisp blue sky, which for some reason I found pretty cool. In addition, that our glowing orb of light and life was that high off the horizon in the last days of February gave me hope for the near return of summer. 

We're getting used to the constant snow by this point. It's almost as if it's been here for ages. I'm starting to be on familiar terms with the bumps and ditches that have formed in the hard pack on the roads around my neighborhood, navigating them with pro dexterity as I drive around town. Channels and grooves and paths have been etched by cars and carriages and feet on common travel routes. Kids are nearly blasé about putting on their snow pants and thick winter gear each morning, and the yellow stains left by pets are becoming a ubiquitous sight. Cross-country skis that've been stored away like relics have been dusted off and taken for runs out at the many nature trails that surround the city, and photos taken, thousands upon thousands of them, of our lovely winter wonderland. 

I'm happy for tourists who picked this time to come, as it's a rare thing to see our land so well-covered, bright and clean, with clear aurora-filled night skies to boot. This is how Iceland is advertised as being, and how we'd most like to see it. A week ago everyone was freaking out because of the weather, and now it's as if it's always been this way! And if the Icelandic Met Office's forecasts are right, we'll get to keep it all for a few more days until it'll all unfortunately melt away...

Our little island, all white, taken by NASA satellite on March 3rd.