A Brief Autumn Diary

In between a few attacks of cold and sore throat, we have been enjoying the autumnal weather, with its fits of wildness which we were not exactly prepared to face. Mothers and the Yahoo! Weather kept on informing us about the mild temperatures in the Southern part of Europe. We had little time though to care about the local weather’s outbursts – hence cold and sore throat.

Autumn in Reykjavík is wet, mostly. If you are in luck like us and you live in areas where trees are not a rarity, it is also crisp and crunchy: a feast for your feet and your dog’s nostrils. In these last days of October, the sun rises around 9:00 am and sets around 5:30 pm. Days are getting shorter, indeed. Walking by the sea in Vesturbær everyday we get to see the sun disappearing beyond the horizon, each day like the other and at the same time each day very differently than the day before. Every day the colors, depending on the moody Icelandic weather, are a renewed surprise for the eyes.

Kátur the dog seems like he doesn’t mind the colder elements when he jumps into the waves. Getting out of the salty water, he’s as frozen and smelly as a freshly caught cod. On the contrary, I am quite sensitive to the cold and handling a camera has become a battle of priorities: letting my hands freeze to take pictures or keeping gloves on and giving up? I cannot handle a camera – or do anything else, to be honest – with a pair of gloves on. I tried something in between the two, so I am more eager to use the iPhone to take a few snapshots these days.  After all, lo-fi photography with pretentious equipment is all the rage right now.