Sunday is a day of rest.

Good evening. It's Sunday at 8.30pm. I am so very tired after a busy few days which culminated in the porrablot event last night in the community centre. I can't believe that many people actually live in this village!!

"Þorrablót was originally an ancient mid-winter religious ritual, dedicated to worshipping Odin, Thor, Freyja and others along with some light sacrificing. Today, families, sports teams, and communities gather every Þorri to eat some of the most unappetising foodstuffs imaginable, wash it all down with Brennivín (Black Death), and party the night away."

The pale coloured meat in the middle is the sheeps testicles.... The only truly inedible thing as far as I was concerned, although I did try them!  On the left is shark squares and on the right a type of pate which looks worse that it tasted. Having said that, all is had to eat before this point (around 9pm) was an apple and some cashew nuts....

There a bit of mashed potato and swede but nothing else other than meat. 

There was a very strong vodka which is flavoured with cumin and also bring your own wine. 

So that was last night. Prior to that the Saturday daytime fun consisted of photographing baiters in a fish factory. Oh I do get around... This opportunity, which supports my art proposal to access past and present working environments, was a bit of a quid pro quo as a man turned up at the studio asking to have some photographs for Valentine's Day for his wife. (Awww)

It turned out he was a very proud polish man working for a 75 year old proud Icelandic fisherman. So off I went to the factory on Saturday morning having been told to watch out for the smell, which, he said, made people sick. I didn't think it was that bad. 

I really didn't mind the smell when I was there, and I washed all of my clothes on returning to the house. My camera however, stinks!!! I can't get the smell of old dead fish off it. I've put eucalyptus on it and although it took the smell away for a MINUTE, I have now had to resort to the coco madamoiselle to attempt to stop feeling sick. Putting duty free French perfume on my camera is not what I intended....

This was taken on my way back - with the smelly camera. 

I also did a bit of a valentine shoot for Andrew and Nadia, who are artists staying at nes.

I am beginning to pull together some ground images for a montage piece of work. I have taken images from another artists work, Penny from Australia as well as lots of odd bits and pieces, so that's what I want to start on next week. I won't get anything finished as it takes months to put the large scale pieces together, but at least it will be a start. 

And finally. A couple of the latest aurora images. I'm very tired but there's supposed to be a great display tonight... It's so difficult to plan as you don't know what time it's happening and I truly do need my beauty sleep. In fact, the beauty sleep is a lost cause. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend. See you soon. 

Love,

Aly x