Tag Archives: Nature

Waterfalls for the Gods

2018 Trip to Iceland, Waterfalls,

Godafoss. (foss means waterfalls)

Iceland astounds.  I no longer remember too much about my expectations before I arrived in Island, but one thing I know. Whatever they were, Iceland exceeded those expectations immeasurably. It was truly astounding.         In my view, the glory of Island though is found most vividly in its waterfalls. I can’t believe there is another place in the world where waterfalls abound as they do in Island. It is truly astonishing.

One of my (many) favorites was Godafoss. It means “falls of the gods.” Of course, for a waterfall guy all waterfalls belong to the gods. The name is entirely apt for its beauty alone.  However there is more to the name than beauty. In about 1,000 A.D. the lawpeaker (leader) Porgeir Porkelson of the Icelandic Parliament had to decide whether or not Iceand should remain pagan or change to Christianity.  He weighed the matter for 24 hours.  His reflections were not religious but economic. He decided Iceland could improve trade with Europe if it converted, so he decided everyone was now a Christian. No travelling evangelist was needed for the purpose. There is no evidence that the people had a choice. As always the people get to follow their leader. After the choice was made Porgeir tossed all his idols into the falls and the name Godafoss was born.

Skogafoss

 

 

 

I am sure that one of the reasons for the amazing abundance of waterfalls is the fact that so many trees have disappeared from the island on account of neglect going back about a 1,000 years. Starting with the Vikings people ravished the countryside of trees and the country has paid the price ever since. The soils have mainly blown away without the tree cover. As a result even after more than a 100 years of trying, only 1% of the trees have been replaced. Trees need some soil to grow. As a result the rainfall too often does not soak into the ground but rushes along causing floods, but also glorious waterfalls! Iceland pays a heavy price for that beauty but we visitors get the benefits.

 

 

Rjúkandafoss

A bunch of us travellers begged for our driver to stop for this fall. This was one of the times he could do that, because there was a spot to stop. Often it was not possible as the roads were very narrow and stopping was impossible unless there was a place for parking. Too often Iceland provided no place for cars let alone buses to stop.

 

 

Seljandsfoss–This was my personal favourite

There are so many magnificent waterfalls it beggars the imagination. For a self-professed “Waterfall Guy” (along with “Bog Guy”, “Wild flower Guy,” “Sunset Guy,” “Lighthouse Guy”, and even “Church Guy”” of course) I found heaven. For a while I got upset at every waterfall our coach passed by. How could these Cretans not stop? Eventually I caught on that if we stopped at them all our trip would have take 2 centuries not 2 weeks.

 

 

 

Everywhere you drive water tumbles down mountains.

 

Gullfoss–One of the most photographed waterfalls in all of Iceland.  I have never seen a country with as many  waterfalls as Iceland. This is the land of the gods.

Would you not agree that all the waterfalls are the falls of the gods?

 

 

 

 

Iceland: Moonscapes and Marscapes

2018 Trip to Iceland, ,

 

Iceland is beautiful but strange. This is a place in which the trees have disappeared. Hollywood studios have used it to make movies with an other worldly  landscape.  Movies like The Game of Thrones or The Fast and the Furious like to film in such unearthly surroundings. It is eerily unearthly in a beautiful way. The American space program has used it to train astronauts for being on the moon. Now they have decided to use it to train upcoming astronauts before launching for Mars.

All of this beauty hides a serious environmental problem created by ignorance greed and determination. The only good thing is that we now know that other civilizations besides the capitalist ones, can destroy their surroundings. Life is hard when you are stupid.

Iceland lost most of its trees more than a thousand years ago when Vikings arrived and started to decimate the countryside. At the time 25% of the country was covered with trees. Now they are largely gone. Icelanders would now like to have their forests back because they have begun to reaize how important they are. When the trees were felled much of the soil blew away as their was nothing to  hold it together anymore. As a result the soil was seriously degraded and this in turn led to huge problems with flooding. In recent years they have planted 3million trees, but it has not done much good. Less than 1% of the land has tree cover despite all these efforts.

Because the soil is so poor it is difficult to plant new trees that will stick. This demonstrates how difficult it is to restore the environment once it is ruined. This is a lesson all countries should learn. Canada, for example, should learn this lesson too before it allows Tar Sands oil production to devastate the environment. It may not be as easy to restore as oil companies seem to think. The largest forest now is found inside the capital city of Reykjavik.

By removing trees the Vikings removed the main pillar of the environment. The introduction of sheep later on did not help. Dr. Gudmundur Halldorsson, research coordinator of the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland was not shy in in his criticism of what happened. “As a result, Iceland is a case study in desertification, with little or no vegetation, though the problem is not heat or drought. About 40 percent of the country is desert, Dr. Halldorsson said. “But there’s plenty of rainfall — we call it ‘wet desert. “Simply everything was stripped away,” Dr. Halldorsson said. “This is what people don’t realize. You can lose something like this in relatively few years.”

The situation is so bad that students from countries that are undergoing desertification come here to study the process. That is exactly what we saw today on our drive through the northern part of Iceland.

I hope the same thing does not happen to Canada.

Orchids created by adultery (sort of)

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba,

 

Sometimes the orchid world reveals sins. Those sins include deception, trickery or adultery.  Previously I have shown you Small White Lady’s Slipper and Large or Small Yellow Lady’s Slippers.  The Whites are very rare. But there is something even more rare hybrids between the Whties and the Yellows. These are created by adulterous relations between 2 different species that have produced offspring.

 

The offspring are called Cypripedium Xandrewsii.   Last year I had the fortune to see these in Manitoba. You can see that their colour is sort of a creamy white from the different shades of the two parents.

Small Yellow Lady’s-slipper

Orchids of Manitoba, ,

 

Sometimes the stars align. I was just thinking that I had not yet seen the Northern Small Yellow Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin) when I got an email from a friend who said some were blooming just across the road from his home not far from where I live. As soon as possible I headed out.

The Small Yellow Lady’s-slipper is very similar to the Large Yellow Lady’s-slipper. In fact some botanists claim there is only one species. On the other hand some believe that there is a third yellow species with fairly flat lateral sepals.  Don’t think these issues are not important to orchids nuts.  I am a member of Native Orchid Conservation Inc. an organization dedicated to the preservation of native orchids and other plants. a few years ago  a former President of our organization threatened to sue our current President at the time for denying in a radio interview that there was a 3rd species in. Most botanist disagreed asserting there are only 2 species, but our former President was passionate that there were 3. As a lawyer I am of course reluctant to say litigation is not a good thing, but this was pretty ridiculous. The orchid world is filled with fanatics. Thank goodness they rarely lead to jihads.

The Small Yellow Lady’s-slipper is smaller than the Large. That is why some say the smaller ones are just stunted large ones. The Small Yellow Lady’s-slipper also has darker petals and sepals as you can see from my photograph.

Life is good when the world blossoms

Wild flowers of Manitoba,

 

 

 

Spring is the time for blossoms

 

These are blossoms from our yard or our neighbour’s yard.

 

The flower of a plant is the reproductive structure that is found in all flowering plants.  Blossoms are flowers, but the word is usually confined to the flowers of fruit bearing trees such as apples, pears, plums, cherries and the like which bloom particularly in spring. Blossoms are usually white.

Life is good when the world blossoms.

Calypso

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba, ,

 

Today I made my third attempt to locate and photograph the lovely native orchid—Calypso or Fairy-slipper. Finally it made its appearance. It was the first orchid of the year. Twice before I drove all the way to the Sandilands only to be disappointed. There was no disappointment today.  as a result, there was rejoicing at the Neufeld residence, sort of like the rejoicing in heaven when the prodigal son returned.

This is a tiny but lovely orchid. Perhaps the most lovely.  I really cannot say which is my favorite orchid. Asking me what my favorite orchid is would be like asking me who is my favorite son or favorite grandchild. But this one is certainly in the running.

One unusual thing about this orchid is that it has only one leaf and that appears at the base in the autumn. It remains green all winter long on the ground at the base of the flower underneath the snow. What is up with that?