Street Biologist's Diary

On my first full day in Reykjavik, Iceland, I visited Hallgrímskirkja or the Church of Hallgrímur. It is a Lutheran church located in the centre of Reykjavik. It is named after the most renowned sacred poet of Iceland, Hallgrímur Petursson. At 74.5 meters (244 feet), it is the largest church in Iceland and one of the tallest structures in the country. The construction was started in 1945 and was completed after 41 years in 1986. The basalt-column motif soaring skyward is an ode to modernism and reminder of the Icelandic landscape. It has a carillon of bells at its top that rings every hour. In fact, when we arrive there, we got to hear the charming sound of these bells. The statue of Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson stands in front of the church. It was a gift from the USA to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the convening of Iceland’s parliament in Þingvellir in 930 AD. Erikson was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot in continental America, a...

 I am back to my blog after more than a year! Like the last post, this is also about Aurora Borealis.  What a show it was! There had been buzz in the social media last week about the gigantic solar storm. It was supposed to be one of the largest in last 24 years. Hence, everybody was expecting a major Aurora event. Then, Lady Aurora showed up on Friday (May 11, 2024) night. As we first looked outside at around 10:30 PM, we could see some light green and purple. As we were getting closer to the midnight, the colours started to intensify. At arounf midnight, the sky literally irrupted in multiple colours - green, yellow, pink, and gorgeous red! We observed the show from our window, backyard and the driveway from 10:30 PM - 12:45 AM and we didn't know how the time went by.  The great thing about this aurora was that it had been witnessed by the huge part of the Northern Hemisphere, in places like England (including the city of London), Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and even Lada...

 I am back to my blog after more than a month. As the semester is winding down, there's a lot to do with teaching.  One of the bonuses of living in Alberta, Canada is the experience of witnessing the incredible beauty of Northern Lights.  On Thursday night (24 March 2023), she came with all her glory. From our location, we only got to see her for about 20 minutes and then clouds moved in. We had experienced another major show on 4 November 2021. I stayed out in our backyard for over two hours and enjoyed her glory with my heart's content! I will show you some photos from that night first followed by the photos taken on Thursday night. Here are some photos I took this Thursday night.