two terns for tony

we don’t own a tv, and my husband, despite being a food writer, tries to steer clear of the mostly distracting enticements of celebrity food culture. which is a long way of saying that anthony bourdain was not a big presence in our lives over the last few years despite being an outsized presence for a number of years after kitchen confidential was published. but there was a strange gentleness behind the macho bad-boy facade, and i felt there was always a sadness in the cast of his mouth, even when he was supposed to be giving off happy blustery energy. i think he is someone who has been important to our culture as a whole, not just celebrity culture, and we need more people like that on earth, not fewer. so here are two arctic terns, flying over the north sea, immersed in who they are, with no dark thoughts clouding their sure, predatory focus. i wish mr. bourdain had had more moments like that. and i hope you all have more moments like that than like the moment when he decided that somehow this astounding world was not a world worth being alive in.

arctic terns captured in flight above their icelandic nesting grounds

the things she carried

i travel light. unless there is interesting nature at my destination. at which point i travel very, very, very heavy on the way home. a portrait of iceland, STILL blog style.

a collection of nature bits from iceland’s snæfellsnes peninsula

if i lived near the sea

if i lived near the sea, STILL blog would be a very different place indeed. i could happily spend days, months . . . hmmm . . . years? . . . yes,  i say years, photographing the colorful bits of dried up algae, kelp, and seaweed that wash up on beaches. and don’t even get me started with shells, sea glass, and driftwood. oh, and beach rocks. and coastal plants and lichens. and fish skeletons. and sharks’ teeth. oh, and . . .

washed up brown alga from an icelandic beach (laminaria hyperborea)

a new planet

this photo looks to me like an undiscovered planet with bulbous volcano ranges spewing black lava,  and hundreds of tiny moons circling chaotically overhead. it would be a very strange planet if it existed. so strange that if i discovered it and were asked to come up with a name, i would call it “iceland.”

volcanic (basalt lava) rocks from icelandic beaches

re-entry and recovery

i brought several things home with me from iceland: 1) some awfully cool black lava rocks, 2) a new understanding of just what those bodies of saltwater are way up north in the atlantic, 3) a flu virus, 4) this image of a quirky, proud, nicely proportioned houseplant from my airbnb in reykjavik. i’m happy about almost all of these things.

(unidentified) house plant in my airbnb in reykjavik