Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland. Sheep farmer Arnar Gústafsson and his girlfriend Edda Björk take shifts watching over the nearly 300 ewes and helping them give birth 24/7 for about two months or until the last lamb is born.  more

Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.  more

Admittedly, the official Icelandic First Day of Summer in mid-April isn’t really when summer begins. Some might even argue summer doesn’t arrive in Iceland at all since there are very few days where one would feel comfortable wearing shorts and t-shirts.

(Except if you’re Palli Stefáns, IR’s eccentric photographer and deputy editor. I met up with him and Jonas Moody for lunch on a beautiful but chilly First Day of Summer in my home town Akureyri last April 24. By sheer coincidence we all happened to be in the neighborhood. Palli was wearing shorts while I was wrapped up in my winter coat and a woolly scarf. His legs were red and blue from the cold. “Why are you wearing shorts?” I asked him although I knew what his reply would be. “It’s summer,” he simply said.)

But don’t let your eyes or skin fool you; use your ears, nose and mouth to determine the season. Summer brings with it two distinctive smells. One is the revitalizing smell of freshly-cut grass. Before you smell the grass you can hear the motors of the lawnmowers buzzing. But it is too early for that; the grass is barely just turning green.

The other is the delightful, mouthwatering scent of meat slowly grilling on a barbeque. Immediately after summer officially begins in Iceland, natives bring out their barbeques and grill marinated lamb or pork chops, served with potato salad and coleslaw. Then their taste buds will confirm that summer has indeed arrived on this Nordic isle, regardless of the weather.

Last Saturday my boyfriend and I decided to welcome summer too and bought a small cheap coal barbeque (in light of the current economic situation we decided to postpone the purchase of a fancy gas barbeque like most people seem to have these days). Oh, what a wonderful meal. Every year I forget just how good grilled food is.

I’ve never known any nation as ambitious about barbequing as Icelanders. I’ve heard some crazy stories about Australians, barbequing their Christmas dinners and all, but they have a warmer climate and celebrate Christmas during summer, so it’s not quite the same. Some Icelanders don’t even limit their barbeque enthusiasm to summer and barbeque their Christmas steaks like the Australians… except in a raging snowstorm!

Everything tastes better once it has been grilled and Icelanders have done some pretty wild experiments with the barbeque in the past, like grilling fruit salad with M&Ms for dessert. The most popular barbequed dessert has to be grilled banana with chocolate and cream, though. Mmmm… it melts in the mouth.

For a real barbeque feast, try grilling an entire leg of lamb. You don’t even need a barbeque. The best lamb I’ve ever tasted was grilled in a hole in the ground with coals on the bottom, the meat wrapped up in aluminum foil. Nothing beats Icelandic lamb and the Icelandic soil—as strange as it may sound—gives it a really special taste.

Icelandic lamb hot dogs are a classic starter. Meat-lovers as we Icelanders are, pork or lamb, sometimes beef or chicken, is a natural choice for the main course. But in recent years seafood has been gaining popularity. Salmon is an excellent choice for the barbeque and grilled lobster is absolutely fantastic.

Side dishes include jacket potatoes with home made garlic butter, grilled onion and garlic, mushrooms with blue cheese or pepper cheese, zucchini with feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers and more. For dessert, apart from the aforementioned banana, grilled pineapple or mango is a popular choice.

I could easily turn this column into a list of delicious barbeque recipes, but my point is this:

The next time you visit Iceland in summer and its windy and rainy outside making you shiver with cold wondering whether the calendar is playing a practical joke on you, close your eyes and register the delightful scent being emitted from thousands of barbeques across the country, feel your moth water and then listen to your tummy rumble.

That is a certain sing of summer.

ESA – eyglo@icelandreview.com

Valentines by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson contains 12 short stories, one for each month of the year. They all revolve around love and time, “the two most powerful forces in human existence,” as it says on the back of the book. But these bland tales just conclude without a real ending, without an interesting twist and an unforeseen plot.  more

Known throughout equestria for its gentle demeanor, comfy ride and distinctive f ifth gait, the Icelandic horse becomes the belle of the ball at the 18th annual National Horse Show of Iceland this summer. Atlantica managed to f ind one of the show’s biggest names, National Team Trainer Siggi Saemundsson, to get an idea of this year’s event.  more

This week visit the photographic exhibition “Through My Eyes” by Rafn Hafnfjörd in the Start Art Gallery in central Reykjavík. Since 1955, Hafnfjörd has photographed Iceland with the purpose of promoting the country. His photographs have been published in travel brochures, on postcards, calendars, stamps and web sites.  more