Tuesday, Nov. 9

Up at our usual 7 a.m. hour, and I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, I continued doing laundry and other things related to getting organized again following a trip.

After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...to the bank, to the pharmacy, and back to the WDCS for groceries to satisfy this week's menu.

Back home, I spent time posting trip narratives to a social network, and just generally relaxing.

Later, after supper, Hubbie and I went to one of the colleges, where a well-known photographer from our state presented a slide show of his trip to Iceland. He showed about 130 stunning images of the beautiful rolling, but treeless, landscape, and the many gorgeous waterfalls.

He said Iceland, a volcanic land, reminds him of a moonscape, with its bubbling holes, and soft ash earth. It sounds barren, but in fact, the land is colorful, and made more interesting with grazing sheep. He noted that it is illegal to hunt sheep in Iceland. Sheep are always seen in groups of three, he said...a ewe and two lambs. Rams are rarely seen. In the spring, the half grown lambs are rounded up and slaughtered. Lamb is a big export item for Iceland, he said.

Iceland is only about as big as Virginia, and has a low population of about 260,000 people. It has a high concentration of active volcanoes (one of which recently erupted, spewing ash over a large part of Europe).

Folks in Iceland don't eat out much, he said, because restaurant food is outrageously expensive...a salad, for instance is priced at $15. Fortunately, food was included in the price of the tour for his group, so they could order whatever they wanted.

He also noted that the water in Iceland is pure (from the pristine glaciers), so on the group's photographic excursions, their guide encouraged them to drink from the lakes and streams.

Iceland is a rugged land, and this photographer is in his 50s, so the younger photographers in his group were sure he wouldn't be able to keep up in their treks. But this man has been trooping around the hills and forests of our state for 35 years, so it turned out that the younger men had trouble keeping up with him.

The photographer followed the Iceland slide show with a presentation of over a hundred spectacular photos of our state in autumn. He noted that he does not drink from the lakes and streams of our state, because they are so polluted.

I skipped my two regularly scheduled meetings tonight in favor of attending the photographer slide show. I couldn't have attended both meetings anyway. The community theater board pushed its meeting back from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m., and the visual arts committee meets at 5 p.m.
I would have had to choose one or the other. But I chose neither, because getting to see the photographer's work and hearing him speak is a rare opportunity. I can always call committee and board members to get caught up on whatever was discussed at the meetings.

When we got back home around 9 p.m., we watched the elimination round of "Dancing With the Stars," and then hit the sack.