Ah Snow!

It is still a novelty for me!  This is now my third winter I have spent in Iceland and I am still unexpectedly surprised when overnight the landscape changes so dramatically.  We had the first snow fall for the season last week but it soon disappeared and we were back to green grass, autumn colours on the trees (those that still have a few leaves but they are disappearing fast) and chocolate coloured mountains.

 

Yesterday morning when I awoke it was all white once again.  At 9am it was -1 and Perla and I took a fresh and brisk morning walk and marveled at the ever changing landscape.

 

The large mountains across the fjord now appeared like huge white icebergs. 

The snow yesterday looked like fake snow (or what I imagine fake snow to look like) the type used on movie sets.

 

There were tiny little white beads that were dry and loose covering the ground, just waiting to be kicked and sprayed up into the air.

 

I had never really thought about different sorts of snow but there is a large variety apparently, sometimes huge flakey snow, soft wet mushy snow and also this granular snow.

 

The English and Icelandic languages have many words for snow and the various forms it comes in.  The snow we had yesterday is called Graupel in English (but really a German word, not sure what the Icelandic word is) in Australia the word for snow is pretty much just snow and that one is used very little as you can imagine.

The day was cold, still, with a little sun, some blue skies peeking through...absolutely perfect for walking.