kpanic's photostream  

the canna is a (bit distant) tropical relative of the banana, ginger and strelitzias.

its root is edible and its leaves are quite amazing, shimmering in many colors of the spectrum.

this picture was taken after rain poured down on a canna for some minutes. i really like the small droplets of water in the middle of the leaf.

a week before our flight to iceland departed, the grimsvötn volcano erupted in iceland, nearly preventing our flight it.

but this time, we got lucky.

this picture was taken on the svinafellsjökull glacier, just west of the more well-known skaftafellsjökull. it shows some dramatic combination of blue ice with black ash, which was still scattered all over the glacier. grimsvötn is about 15km away from svinafellsjökull.

as we were hiking near skaftafell, a snow grouse appeared just on the path. one cannot say it was shy in any way ;)

we've been told that snow grouse is kind of an integral part of icelandic cuisine, but you are only allowed to hunt it for personal use.