Category Archives: Nature Iceland, that tiny Nordic island nation in the North Atlantic, sits just barely outside the Arctic Circle and has more glacier-covered land than all of continental Europe. With a terrain that has been ground flat by successive periods of glaciation and rendered relatively tree-less by human predation, the winter landscape looks cold and white and eerily bleak from […]  Another year draws to a close… I find that the period of “limbo” between Christmas and New Year is a good time to reflect on the past: on the trials and accomplishments of the year that is finishing. This time in 2014, I wrote: “This last year has been a turbulent one: wars, acts of terror and insanity, […]  Bavaria. When I think of Bavaria, I think of buxom blond women in dirndls (traditional white blouses, laced bodices, full skirts and aprons), and moustached men in lederhosen (leather breeches). I think of medieval castles, charming villages, and beer in copious steins. But, it is also home to expanses of dark forests that stretch from high up in the Bavarian Alps down to the […]  Namibia is big. And dry. Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, which makes for clear skies, cold nights, and – even in winter – searing-hot days. Deadvlei (“Dead Marsh”), in Namibia’s Namib-Naukluft Park, almost 400 hot, bumpy kilometres from the capitol, Windhoek, must be one of the driest places in this big country. During a period of drought, some 700+ years […]  Ever since reading Heidi as a child, and “studying” Switzerland in Grade 3 Social Studies, I have dreamed of walking in the flower-filled meadows of the Swiss Alps. When my husband and I planned to visit some Swiss friends last year, I thought my chance had come. Alas, being geographically challenged as I am, I didn’t realise […] |
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