Iceland Partur Tveir (Part Two)

We have been out into the countryside on several trips now, and I am so in love with this beautiful country of Iceland (Island), and its people.  We went on a bus tour to Geysir (Geyser), Gullfoss (where there is a stunning waterfall), and to see where the North American and the European plates meet (mid Atlantic Ridge).  My pictures don't adequately capture the amazing colors and sweeping vistas.  This will be the most photo-intensive blog post I've done, so hang in there with me.

Geysir 2014

 Some of the images remind me of the area near Yellowstone, but with fewer trees

Geysir 2014

Gullfoss 2014

Gullfoss is a stunning waterfall that is multilayered, and is frozen for part of the year.

Gullfoss 2014

Note the professional photographer near the edge.  The lengths some people will go for a photo!

Our new son-in-law's grandfather, Jon Eldon, and his wife Inga Olsen invited us to their home for "coffee", which turned out to be more like a very high tea.  There was an amazing spread of sandwiches, wraps, including traditional things such as smoked salmon and smoked lamb; plus beautiful cakes and a wide variety of things to drink.  Jon has a business building the most incredible custom fireplaces in Iceland.  Inga has a hobby working with the beautiful stones you can find at the seashore.  These are some of the people she has made and painted.  She just sets these out front and they sell themselves.

by Inga Olsen

By Inga Olsen

By Inga Olsen

By Inga Olsen

 I really loved this piece, and she also has some beautiful stacked stone pieces in her yard.  Below is just one of them

by Inga Olsen

Jon and Inga invited us to go on a tour to some lesser know places and backroads.  We had so much fun that it made us wish that we had another week here to travel around with our gracious new friends.

Geothermal area Southwest of Reykjavik

The water in the pools was HOT!  Most of the homes in Iceland use geothermal energy for everything, including the unlimited hot water that they get directly from areas such as this.

Where the lava flows met the sea, Southwest of Reykjavik

I could have spent all day here by the ocean just looking at all of the beautiful rocks, seaweed and other interesting things that the sea has swept in

Since this is not really a travel blog, I'm going to leave you with some Zentangled images that I did right before I came to Iceland.  Upon learning that our son-in-law's little sister loves to draw, I sent her a "Joy of Zentangle" book.  She liked it quite well, so I brought her some more pens, markers, and some tags that I cut out of different papers.  I did small samples to show her what can be done with the different paper types.

By Dianne Johnson

 Using Classic Crest card stock and colored Micron 01 pens

by Dianne Johnson

Using Watercolor paper, Tombow markers for watercolor, and Micron black 01 pen.  I also used the Magenta Swirl Lines stamp on this one (42.126.L).  I love using that stamp to create strings in which to Zentangle.

by Dianne Johnson

Using Kraft paper and a brown (not Sepia) 01 Micron pen

by Dianne Johnson

Using black paper, and a white Pentel Sunburst pen

by Dianne Johnson

 A larger tag that I tangled with a Pentel Sunburst pen.  I also stamped the sentiments with Memento Luxe Wedding Dress ink.

by Dianne Johnson

One last tag:  this was completely out of my comfort zone, since I prefer to work in black and white, but this was for a friend who loves explosions of color.  I used Sakura glaze pens, and stamped with Memento ink in a complementary color.

If you hung in with me all the way to the end of this, you're a real trooper.  Thanks for sharing some of my favorite memories of our incredible trip to Iceland with me.  We have had a wonderful time, and our primary reason for coming, which was our daughter's wedding went beautifully.  Thanks to everyone for all of the good wishes!