Author: alexmstein

Today is my last full day here.

The other two remaining people in our house got up early to catch a 6:45 a.m. bus to the airport in Egilstaddir. We’re flying out on the morning flight tomorrow, driving back there around the same time.

It snowed overnight here, which gave everything a wonderful feel.

Martina and Steph left this morning around 6:30 to go to Egilstaddir, where Amy and I will head tomorrow ourselves.

Amy was working all day in the recording studio, so I was in the downstairs studio working on a few things myself. I finished my 28th story in 30 days, which is fantastic. I’d hoped when I came here to write first drafts of 20-30 stories, so this is great (and on the high end of what I’d hoped for). In addition, I have the start of three additional stories (and notes on another 5 or 6 I’ll write in the next few weeks).

Any way you slice it, that’s pretty great.

I left around noon to go back to the house and do some cleaning and packing so I’m not stuck doing all that late tonight, then headed back down and did a bit more work.

Here are a few photos from today. (I also sent a few goofy videos to some of the artists who already left, showing them the empty studio.)

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https://youtu.be/GXZHIZBou6A

I’m having trouble adding video again this evening (so try clicking on the links). Such is the internet in the Eastfjords. I’ll try again when I’m in Egilstaddir or Reykjavik tomorrow and update this page then.

I started getting a bit sad this afternoon, realizing that this wonderful experience is coming to an end.

But I guess these things never really end if we can take them with us. And I definitely will with this.

Thanks, Vinny and Vid from the Fish Factory (as well as Clio, Joke, Martina, Mazz, Steph, and Uva).

Tomorrow it’s Egilstaddir and Reykjavik, which will feel positively crowded compared to Stöðvarfjörður.

More later.

Four of the seven of us are gone.

Two artists from the other house and two from our house got up early, trudged downhill in the dark, and caught the bus to take the morning plane back to Reykjavik. I believe three of them are flying back in the afternoon or evening (and one will stay in Reykjavik for a few days).

The house feels empty-ish. Amy was working in the studio all day and I was writing another story that I think is likely to be the last piece in the book when it appears.

I also revised a couple of other pieces and recorded two to put up on Patreon.

Martina and Steph both cleared out their workspaces here in the downstairs studio (where I’m writing this in the morning).

Amy and I had talked about going to Eskifjörður to go to a lovely outdoor local pool with three hot tubs. We went there with a few people last year and it was a really fun outing.

This year, a couple people were interested, but the timing didn’t work out.

In the afternoon, Amy told me that she wanted me to shout out a punk-rock countdown for one of her songs, which I was happy to do since that’s basically one of my fantasies to do that. We taped it twice, once in English and once (as a tribute to Neil Innes and the Rutles) in German (Eins, svei, drei, vier!).

I nailed them in one take each. (Plus, look at the view out the studio window!)

It’s looking a bit empty around the studio, to be honest.

Around 4:30, Amy and I headed a few fjords down to Eskifjörður to the pool, which was lovely and relaxing. We had an Icelandic ice cream bar after and drove back through pitch black and light snow.

Back at the house, Steph and Martina made dumplings, we made a salad, and we had some yummy bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic.

Steph and Martina take off tomorrow early. Amy has one more day in the studio, I’ll do some cleaning and packing, and we’ll leave very early Friday.

It’s hard not to feel sad about leaving, but I’m also trying to soak up every last bit I can get of this place.

More later.

The first group of people are leaving tomorrow morning.

It was appropriately cloudy and rainy this morning, but still unspeakably beautiful:

The sun is coming up around 10:00 these days, which is eerie and beautiful as well. By the time the sun came up, there was a bit of a rainbow as well.

We had a review meeting/debriefing with Vid and Vinny and all the artists for about an hour at noon and talked about what the experience was like for us.

I would totally come back here again given the time.

A lot of the others are packing up the studio and packing up their stuff to leave. I’m still plugging away (26 stories in 28 days).

Here’s a photo of the window of the room where I worked most days and where we held our exhibition last night. (Drone art by Martina and Sketches by Step are in the windows.)

I’m going to miss being here, even if one of my cat friends snubbed me when I tried to film him. (Don’t worry, he nuzzled up to me when the cameras weren’t around.)

In the evening, we all got together and had a meal together, which was really fun.

Safe travels to Clio, Mazz, Uva, and Joke in the morning!

More later.

Today was a wonderful day.

I woke up after not getting enough sleep (it was too hot and then too cold and I was checking a couple times for the Northern Lights (which weren’t out where we are).

In the morning, Amy and I went down to the Fish Factory, where she’s working in the recording studio. When Amy was working, I went for a quick walk, then wrote story number 25 (which explains the fight among the gods that resulted in gaining and losing sunlight as the seasons change).

Tonight was our Exhibition for the artists here in November. People set up visual examples of their work, Mazz showed a bit of the video she was working on, Clio showed video and invited people to paint on the white paper where some of her video showed (and also had a couple songs for people to listen to and a few paintings to display), Steph displayed her various paintings, sketches, and print books, Joke presented some of her sculptures, and Martina displayed several of her cool miniatures as well as a book of sketches she did.

And then there was me. I’d agreed to read two stories and had three that I was going to choose between. I knew I wanted to read the story “Aurora” and couldn’t decide what the second would be. In the end, I went with “Bird” over “Moon” because there were a couple similarities between “Moon” and “Aurora” and I didn’t want people to get the feeling that all the pieces shared those similarities.

There was a Facebook event for the Exhibition, but there was some confusion about the time, so people from the community came after we had pretty much wrapped things up. People really dug the two stories (and were amazed that I’d written 25 of them so far). After, we went around and the other artists explained some of the thoughts that went into their work this past month.

Here are a few photos from the day and the Exhibition:

Four people are leaving on Wednesday, two more on Thursday, and Amy and I are heading out on Friday morning.

It’s been an amazing month and there’s still a few days left to get things done.

Here’s a photo of my pal Tumi (to whom I threw this and many other sticks), whom I will miss when I leave this place.

More later.

Pretty socked in this morning. Watched the fog drift in over the fjord and went for a quick-ish walk in the morning.

I was down at the Fish Factory, revising a few old stories and working on one about what the fog actually means.

We’re having a public exhibition tomorrow where I’m going to read two of my stories (out of the 24 I’ve completed drafts of so far) and the other artists are going to present some of the work they’ve been doing here in the past month. It’s open to the public, but I’m guessing it’s a bit out of range for most of you.

Here are some photos of the fog today and one from the town’s Christmas market, held inside the school building. There were lots of crafts and foods made in the village and it all looked great. I had to take care of a few things (like mopping the house I’m staying in) and was waiting for Amy to arrive, but intended to go back before they closed and maybe buy a few things. The timing was a bit off and by the time I got back there, they were all packing up. (I did get a nice photo of a cat and a tree, though.)

Also, Amy is here! She did this residency back in February and I came to visit her here and now she’s back visiting me and doing a little recording for her new EP.

Too cloudy and fogged in for any Northern Lights tonight. But we did briefly head over to Saxa, where they are showing non-Christmas movies on Wednesdays and Christmas movies on Sundays. We and three other locals watched Gremlins, which apparently is now an official Christmas movie. (Who knew?) We didn’t stay for the whole movie, but it was a lot of fun to be there.

More later.

If you told me that I’d go on hikes that were more than seven miles long two days in a row, I’d have laughed. That’s not the type of thing I generally do. Or ever do.

But here we are.

This morning, I got up early and decided to try to get some dawn footage from the Sitka P. Coldfoot Memorial Drone to make up for the footage not coming out yesterday. Even though it was cloudier, it looked kind of gorgeous. I posted this as a Reel on Instagram (with some music from Amy Engelhardt). Check it out here.

Energized, I came back and wrote a new story before 10:00. Then I decided I’d take a hike. But this time at my own pace and on the road, so I could stop whenever I needed to.

I knew I wanted to go to the end of the fjord, where there’s a nice beach and something called the Bird-Watching House. As I was walking, I decided to keep going to one of the waterfalls on the other side of the fjord. I’m glad I did. It was breathtaking.

Here’s a few photos from that hike:

This culminated with the photo of the waterfall, which is my favorite picture I’ve taken so far in Iceland. It looks like a painting, but I’ve done zero editing and there are no filters. It’s just this beautiful:

On the way back, after I’d gone more than seven miles, I started wishing someone would stop and give me a lift. Soon after I thought that (when I was at the cemetery at the edge of town), a van with two of the artists (and faithful Fish Factory pooch Tumi) pulled up to me and asked if I wanted a life. I gladly took that life. And later I thought “wait… did I just manifest this van to appear?”

Maybe. Maybe so.

After taking a nice long shower and having some food, I went down to the Fish Factory and revised the story I’d written that morning. (Number 23 in 25 days if you’re keeping score).

All of that would have made a pretty amazing day.

But there was more.

A brief, but colorful show of the Northern Lights followed in the early evening.

Life is good, friends. Life is good.

More later.

I thought the other hike was long.

But this one was much longer. I was happy to go with my fellow artists (5 of us together), but realized too late that three of the four are a lot younger than me and none of the four was interested in stopping and listening and just being up on the mountain. Instead, they were always pressing ahead. Which was fine, although I was seriously lagging behind for most of the hike and didn’t feel like I could just stop and listen and be, which is my favorite thing to do when I hike on my own here.

I enjoyed the company, but am more sore than I’ve been in a long time. And I felt guilty about stopping to take photos because I was already behind and didn’t want to keep them waiting even longer.

Also, I took the Sitka P. Coldfoot Memorial Drone up this morning just after first light when there was a break in the wind, but for some reason the footage didn’t record. If we get a non-windy day tomorrow morning, I’ll give it another shot.

After the hike Uva (one of the other artists who was not on the hike) presented a show of the shadow puppetry he’d been working on, which was delightful (and relied heavily on imagery from his culture in Mexico). The rest of us will be presenting our work on Monday night and I’ll be reading two of the stories I’ve written (22 so far).

Life is excellent. Here’s some photos from today:

And a couple videos:

More later.

I woke up at around 5 in the morning and looked out my window. I could see heavy snow in one of the streetlights. It stuck, but not a huge accumulation. Still, since I expected the streets would be all snowy a couple weeks ago, I was happy to see this.

Today was shopping day (as well as Thanksgiving), so we were off (relatively early) to Egilsstaðir. We went there instead of the closer store because one of the artists was dropping off a piece at a gallery there. But the store in Egilsstaðir is cheaper, so I guess I can’t complain.

And we stopped on the way back to take a group photo on a scenic turnout. It was extremely cold. Not sure how it came out. I’ll try to track down the photo.

Afterwards, some of the other artists decided to cook a pseudo-Thanksgiving meal (with a roasted chicken, stuffing, gravy, baked potatoes, and a pumpkin (actually squash) pie. It was delicious and so much fun to spend time together.

On the walk up, I thought I’d be blown over (winds had to have been gusting over 50 mph). Tomorrow is scheduled to be sunny, so I’m thinking it will be the ideal time for a nice hike.

The moon on my walk up from the Fish Factory looked like a fish, which seems kind of appropriate!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

More later.

Hiked a little in the morning. Did more work. Revised more stories.

Championed my new duck friend:

Watched the winds whip the water across the fjord and resigned myself to no Northern Lights tonight because it clouded over.

Went to see a goofy movie in the local guesthouse pool room. Fell asleep for 20 minutes in a very comfy chair I was sitting in.

And when we got out of the movie around 7:30, the Northern Lights were out.

So… more aurora pictures.

And they were even bright enough to get a fairly decent video:

Remember, this winter is peak-aurora season (in the 11-year aurora cycle) and it’s visible far further south than in most years. If it’s on your bucket list, go go go!

More later.

Yes, stuff happened. Yes, I did things.

But does any of that matter in comparison to the spectacular Northern Lights show we had last night?

Probably not.

It didn’t look good for the Lights in the morning and early afternoon. It was incredibly windy (sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts up to 60) and it had been raining hard all day.

But the skies cleared by sunset and it was gorgeous with a bright, low-hanging moon. Sure, it was still windy, but there were big portions of the sky that were clear.

I had a feeling we might get some aurora action this evening because the sky was relatively clear and the forecast on each of my five aurora apps was looking good.

But first, I took some amazing photos coming back up to the house at the end of Civil Twilight:

And then came the lights. I got an alert around 8:30 p.m. and went outside. Another of the artists here texted the group that the aurora was faint, but should pick up within a half-hour or so.

We all wound up on a hill about 100 yards above town watching until the aurora petered out and we went back inside.

At around 10:00, I got another alert and went back out. It was a bit cold, but incredibly windy. I wondered back up to where I’d seen the lights earlier, but couldn’t see anything. I was on the way back when I looked up and saw a bright ribbon across the sky. I went to the big field across from the house where I’m staying and watched for about 45 minutes as the green light moved and danced over my head. The wind threatened to blow me over and I thought about going inside, but I waited until the ribbon faded.

Then at 11:30, there was another text about an even bigger show of lights. I went back out again and could instantly see the bright green band right outside.

I managed to get a pretty good video (aurora videos are much harder to get than still photos because usually you can get your camera to hold the lens open longer to get a good still, but the video just records what the naked eye can see) and there was a decent display that only lasted about ten minutes.

All in all, this was the best and most intense aurora experience I’ve had.

If you’ve never seen the aurora in person, it is many, many, many times better than seeing photos or videos. We’re in a peak aurora year (the aurora goes in 11-year cycles) and it’s been visible far further south than most years. So… get out there if you can. As good as you think it is, the experience of seeing full-on Northern Lights in person is even better.

One of my favorite pieces I’ve written here is a new origin myth about the aurora. I could always understand intellectually how people would see the Northern Lights and think of gods and celestial beings, but now I get it on a deeper emotional level. Right down to my bones.

Also, the moon looked pretty amazing as the winds blew the clouds in front of it (and I also wrote a new origin myth explaining how the moon came to be and what it symbolizes):

More later.