This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Mother Nature.” I wanted to do something a little better than a pretty landscape or a beautiful landscape. Sure, they’re both by mother nature but I don’t think that’s all there is. I wanted to show the creation and the power and, to a certain extent, how little control we have over the whole process. Iceland is about as good as it gets for that kind of thing, with the volcanos and geysers. We didn’t see any volcanos when we were there — which would have fitted the theme even better — but this is an image at Geysir. It’s dark and miserable, even at 11.30, in December but it’s still spectacular.

Even in December, with the fog, rain and setting sun, this view of the meeting of the European and North American tectonic plates in Iceland is pretty spectacular. Breathtaking you might say. And, for the sake of this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

• The origins of abc – “We will begin where civilisation began, meander through the Middle Ages, race through the Renaissance, and in doing so discover where our alphabet originated, how and why it evolved, and why, for example, an A looks, well, like an A.”
• Icelander’s Campaign Is a Joke, Until He’s Elected – This is brilliant. “A polar bear display for the zoo. Free towels at public swimming pools. A “drug-free Parliament by 2020.” Iceland’s Best Party, founded in December by a comedian, Jon Gnarr, to satirize his country’s political system, ran a campaign that was one big joke. Or was it?”

• May 25, 2001: Towel Day Honors Hitchhiker Author Adams – Do you have your towel with you today?
• Twenty Years Later, Remembering Jim Henson – Still funny…
• Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 – “I wish I had more time… but the weather wouldn’t co-operate. Typical Iceland.” Really nice time-lapse photography taken in Iceland.

You’d think that living the UK I’d have no trouble whatsoever with the PhotoFriday theme “Overcast.”Except, with so much choice, well, which do you choose?

Ultimately I thought this image from our Christmas in Iceland fitted the bill rather better than anything I could find from the UK.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Blurred.” I’m entry number 263.

I had a really hard time finding a suitable image for this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Lightness.” I note that a few people have submitted sunsets or sunrises. Nice, but that’s light not lightness.

I visited Iceland over Christmas and remember the constant flickering of candles and open fires and the cheer of the locals despite the long hours of darkness. This image, therefore, represents lightness both in terms of the candles and the spirit of all in the parade. (That sort of sounds cheesy when you write it down but I’m being genuine when I say it!)

My Little Secret is this, the best coffee shop in Reykjavik, Iceland — it was always half-empty even though they had great drinks and even better cakes.

That’s also this weeks PhotoFriday theme. I found it a tricky subject¹ and I’m not entirely happy with this pictures connection to the topic, but I do think I captured the lighting and the atmosphere of the cafe well.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Electricity.” I’m entry number 225.

[](http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/10817487986/ ““No Camels & Horses” sign, Dahab, Egypt by stephendarlington, on Flickr”)

I always have immense difficulty choosing my next travel destination. The bottom line is that I’d happily visit almost anywhere I’ve not been before. And even then, many of the places I have been to I’d happily go back to. With around two hundred countries in the world this presents a problem. Then you need to combine this with the fact that I love reading about travel — books, brochures, back issues of Wanderlust — and you can easily believe that it can take me months to decide where to travel to next.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is Gray. Here is my entry.

My thesaurus tells me that a synonym for grey, in the sense of grey day, is gloomy and sunless. You can’t get much more gloomy and sunless than this day at Geysir in Iceland!

“Why?” It’s rapidly becoming the question that people ask when I announce my next travel destination, and my Christmas in Iceland trip was no exception.

To be fair I did have doubts. Having spent a winter in Norway a few years ago I was expecting short daylight hours, cold and snow. And it was Christmas so I was expecting a few things to close. But I was also expecting some wonderful, directional light, ideal for photography; I was expecting crisp, blue skies and pristine snow; I was expecting cozy bars and restaurants; and I was expecting to see the Northern Lights.