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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland, in April 2008. 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. In Iceland, the arrival of lambs is synonymous with the arrival of summer. The lambing season is currently at its height.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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The Blue Army (Blái herinn) is an informal organization founded by sport diver Tómas J. Knútsson from Sandgerdi, southwest Iceland. He was disgusted by all the rubbish in Iceland’s harbors and elsewhere and didn’t want visitors to see the mess.
A lighthouse on Reykjanes near Sandgerdi. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
Knútsson uses an old blue army truck with a boom in front and a platform in the back to remove larger pieces of rubbish from beaches, such as the heavy remains of fishing nets, Morgunbladid reports.
When Knútsson moved back home after living abroad in 1995 he founded a sport diving school. With his students, he tidied up the areas where they were planning to dive and before long the Blue Army was established and his family members enlisted.
In 16 years, the Blue Army has removed 875 tons of rubbish from Iceland’s nature, mainly on Reykjanes peninsula but also in the Westman Islands in the south and Akranes in the west. They have devoted 48,000 hours of voluntary work to the project.
Their work is sponsored by various companies, associations and institutions, including Toyota, Reykjanesbaer, Reykjaneshöfn, Pokasjódur, Althingi, Hitaveita Sudurnesja and the Blue Lagoon.
“The municipalities have also been very good about giving me money for certain projects,” Knútsson said. “If I see a whole area that I want to clean I take pictures and send it to the person or municipality who owns it and ask for permission and whether they intend to keep it this way. They usually agree.”
“I try to be subtle about it and raise people’s awareness. If that doesn’t do and no one listens for a long time I sometimes send these pictures to the papers. That serves as encouragement,” he added.
The Blue Army has also been assisted by sports associations “and volunteers like SEEDS who get foreign kids to come and do all sorts of voluntary work in Iceland,” Knútsson said, mentioning that he might expand into tourism.
“I’m thinking of organizing special rubbish walks for people who are interested in supporting the cause,” he concluded.
ESA
Magnús Skarphéðinsson, principal of the Icelandic Elf School, has expressed his concern that Independence Party MP Árni Johnsen may be subject to an accident after relocating a boulder allegedly inhabited by elves to his home in the Westman Islands.
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The first music festival this summer, Reykjavík Live, kicks off with concerts in the center of Iceland’s capital tonight and will carry on through May 20. The venues are Gamli Gaukurinn, Glaumbar, Prikið and Frú Berlaug.
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President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his main rival for the presidential election on June 30, Þóra Arnórsdóttir, are supported by an almost equal number of voters, 41.3 and 43.4 percent, respectively, as indicated in a new survey.
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The West Fjords District Court ruled on Monday that a man found guilty of having drowned a Labrador by tying its front and hind legs, fastening it to car tires and throwing it in the ocean is to pay ISK 100,000 (USD 786, EUR 612) in fine.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes interviews with fashion photographer Saga Sig and conceptual artist Rúrí. Also, we take you to Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, that desolate land coveted by a Chinese tycoon, and also explore Icelandic archeological remains. We discuss the Icelandic Church, the flourishing gaming industry, debate the future of Iceland’s energy resources and interview the president of the Icelandic National League of North America. Subscribe now and receive a free photo book by IR’s editor Páll Stefánsson of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The Reykjavík Shorts&Docs was held in Reykjavík from May 6 to 9 in Bíó Paradís, and what an enriching experience it was to attend the festival.
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Shedding light on Iceland’s thousand-year history, as manifested in remains ranging from Viking graves to enchanted sites, Mannvist is a fundamental piece of writing. Ásta Andrésdóttir met with its author, archaeologist Birna Lárusdóttir.
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“The House Project” currently on display in Hafnarborg, the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, is a new artwork by Hreinn Friðfinnsson consisting of a photography series of the three houses. His work is described as “a poetic and philosophical exploration of every day human experience.”
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