The eagle has landed!

Considering the jet lag though it feels a bit more like the eagle has done slammed into the ground, rolled twice and landed in a pile of mud.

It’s cool though – any exhaustion I might have felt was quickly tempered by the absolute beauty of the place. Just look at the view out my dining hall window:

Pretty sure the birds flew into the shot to show me how it’s done considering the clumsy approach I took to rolling in mud… :)

When we first arrived they had breakfast ready for us, which was such a treat! Raisins, fresh baked bread (still piping hot!) and a special type of sour yogurt, which I thought was milk because of its container and poured into my coffee.

Yum.

After devouring our vittles and my sour coffee we got a chance to check out some of the workshops we’ll be working in. So freaking cool – they have a bunch: art, knitting, wood working, ceramics, essential oils and herbs, etc.

Check out some of the amazing work:

The best part of the day though was meeting Reynir, one of Solheimar’s natives. Solheimar is a unique ecovillage in that it is also host to a ton of people with special needs. Reynir is one of those people and he works in their green house. When we came to visit he let us know that we were very “velcum” to Solheimar. As a matter of fact he let us know that every single part of us was not just velcum but “velcum velcum!” which he did with the most inviting of smiles. Totally made my day.

Meet Reynir:

The other highlight to the day and probably my favorite piece of scenery was this here:

This, my friends, is a nifty little contraption they use to pump sequestered CO2 into the greenhouse to help the plants thrive. The CO2 is taken from water derived through their geothermal energy system and then recycled by pumping it back into their food source.

Pretty sweet way to use sequestered carbon. Pretty good motivator to sequester it at all. I wonder if they’re trying anything like this in America.

If any of you fine folks out there want to research that and let me know, please do! :D

In the meantime, I’d have to say my first impressions include words and phrases like: Incredible. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. Couldn’t have made a better choice.

Aka: Hooray!

Til next time – smile BIG and stay green!