I am in Iceland at present, and I was in quite the quandary about how to celebrate my birthday weekend this year…
Would I:
- Go to somewhere like the Blue Lagoon?
- Stay in one of those ice hotels or similar?
- Go on another road trip?
While all those options and more sounded interesting, the fact is that I am having such a lovely time basically doing what I am doing, I couldn’t think of anything more lovely than soaking in the private geothermal hot tub, resting, reading, painting, and basically doing nothing but more of what I have been doing!
Then, on Saturday night I received a message on my phone…
…and yes, I did see somewhat of an aurora – very feint and wasn’t able to catch on camera, but it was like God was swirling luminous green translucent paint… So beautiful! So, that was an incredible gift for my birthday!
Sunday (my birthday) I totally unplugged…
I also bought myself some paints and brushes… I had brought a set of pencils, coloured pencils, and pens with me, but really felt like painting (not that I am any Rembrandt!) – and took inspiration for a couple of them from the photos I took on my trip right around the island.
They are mixed media (on plain copy paper – as needs must…) of acrylic paint, pencil, pen, and metallic paint pen.
They are no great works of art, but I am going to give them to the hotel as a thank you for taking such good care of me.
…I really should have finished off the grassy area at the bottom left, but I was getting tired of all those individual strokes of grass leaves, that by the time I was down to the bottom of the painting, my inspiration had deserted me (but I will finish it off before I give it to Unnur)…
…so, I decided to go a little more abstract… (but with another of my favourite subjects!)
…and for my reading pleasure…
…and one can easily tell from the state of Mr Talbot’s book that this is not my first reading – nor is this the book’s first journey with me!
I also invested time journalling what I want for my life in this next year…
I had a haircut and treatment, and a facial…
I rested and slept and had a lovely bed-picnic…
I started learning Spanish…
I listened to music by candlelight…
I spent time in my suite that has three huge windows that overlook the harbour and the park, doing nothing but watching the world float by…
…and in general had the most glorious of birthdays!
PS: then I had the additional gift of receiving all my birthday wishes and messages on Monday morning when I plugged back in again! Feeling so blessed!
~ Bella
