Jennifer in the Faroe Islands

The calendar says it is still autumn, but there are lots of signs of winter around.

There is a flock of geese that live across the road, but they wander freely in the neighborhood, grazing beside the road and in empty fields. A Christmas goose is a favorite Faroese Christmas dinner.

The past few days I have been watching as the snow on the peaks of the mountains slowly moved down lower and lower. Last night when I went to choir, I drove slowly and carefully on frozen roads and zig-zagged up the hill instead of driving up the steep streets. I’m not very comfortable driving in snow and ice, since there is never snow on the roads in the San Francisco area where I come from.

This morning, the road by my house was covered with snow, with just a couple of tire tracks leading down to the little factory by the bay. At noon it is zero degrees Celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I can stand by my window and watch the wind blow across the bay, and I feel a jolt when it hits my house.

Today I am wearing my warmest winter sweater. It is one I knitted a couple of years ago, and left here in the Faroes to use when I visit here, since the sweater is too warm to wear in California. I made the sweater before I lost 50 pounds, so now if I pull it down it also keeps my legs warm.

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On Wednesday there were several hours with no rain, little wind, and even some sun, and I took advantage of it by walking around the town with my camera. I have learned that the weather can change very quickly. Clouds can come quickly and dump rain, snow, and hail, and then quickly disappear again. If the rain is pouring down, and I need to go someplace, I am learning to wait a few minutes until the downpour has ended. However, I must say that the past two weeks have had a lot of rain.

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This morning the mountain tops were all covered in snow, and it has lasted all day. This isn’t the first snow of the season, but it is the first since I arrived. My rental car has winter tires, and today I bought a snow scraper for my windshield, so I think my car is ready for winter. Since I come from San Francisco, which doesn’t have snow, the first snow here is always a surprise. I think I’m ready to drive (and occasionally walk) in the snow.

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I have been back in Fuglafjørður for a week now, and I am getting used to being here again.

I wear wool in layers and put on boots, scarves, and raincoats to go outside. I know that I can get very wet just walking to my rental car, which is parked at the corner. Today I tried again to get a picture of a storm on the bay, but my challenge is still to get a good picture of the wind. This afternoon, I stood in my basement doorway, out of the direct rain but still with the wind in my face, and took pictures of the storm on the bay. Finally, my feet were too cold to take more pictures, so I went back upstairs and watched from my window. Gusts of wind sometimes blow a wall of water-spray across the bay, but it is hard to get a picture when it is blowing in my face.

Today is Sunday, and I went to church this morning. I usually attend the state church, which is Lutheran. The priest (or pastor) was here today, and we had communion. He has five different congregations, so he is not in Fuglafjørður every Sunday. The organ postlude was an excerpt from Handel’s Water Music, quite appropriate for the weather. I wonder if Handel wrote any sunshine music.

I have a lot of relatives in the Faroe Islands, and one of the benefits of this is being invited to birthday parties. In the Faroe Islands it is the custom to have an open house on your birthday, with friends and neighbors dropping in for food and refreshments. This party was in Tórshavn, an hour’s drive away, and it was nearly 3:00 a.m. when I got home on Saturday morning.

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I am in Fuglafjørður again for a few months. My trusty little Canon camera has filled up my computer with pictures of the Faroe Islands. I have resorted to an external hard drive to save all of my old pictures, and now I am starting the process again of filling up my computer with photos. My windows, and sometimes my doors, provide me with many beautiful sights of Fuglafjørður.

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