Ships and stories

Shipping season is underway now. In the last few weeks the ice coverage on Lake Superior went from about 95% to less than 25%. The ice is up against the eastern shores and in the bays and the icebreakers are working to free all the harbors and keep the Soo Locks open. I have been seeing the lights out on the lake at night and the freighters, carrying mostly iron ore and grain, are lit up like floating casinos.  Yesterday was windy (about 30 knots on the water) and the ships were hugging the shore for protection.

I believe this is the Paul R. Tregurtha on its way to the Soo Locks yesterday morning.

I just finished reading an Icelandic mystery, The Darkness: A Thriller, by Ragnar Jonasson. It is the first in his Hulda series. I have previously read the first series of five books from this author a year or two ago and decided to try this new series. The main character, Hulda, is in her last days of work before retirement as an investigator. It took me two days to read this which is less time than it usually takes, but the stars were aligned and I didn’t have a lot of pressing chores, some of which I will do today. Procrastination for the sake of a good book is a pardonable sin in my world. The next book in the series is set 25 years previously, so I may have to read that soon to get a feel for Hulda from her younger days. There is very little actual murder in Iceland, maybe one every couple of years, and the killer was usually drunk and confesses immediately, so you can see that reality and fiction are well separated.   

Most of what I have read in the last ten years or so is of the genre, Nordic Noir, which for some reason appeals to me. I think the Scandinavian landscapes appeal to me, especially the bleakness of the Icelandic landscape in winter. It takes some imagination as I have only seen it in early summer which also has a stark beauty to it. Here are a few pictures of Iceland from a previous visit. As always, click to embiggen.

This is from a lava field where my brother and I were hiking and yes, that is geothermal steam rising  in the distance.

This is an abandoned farmhouse near the fjord. These abandoned homes often appear in the Icelandic mysteries.

A vessel returning from the sea.

A cabin where we stayed. Note the trees. The standard joke about the trees in Iceland is this. "What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic Forest? Stand up!" 

 Living in a National Forest makes for quite a contrast, but one I find thoroughly enjoyable. 

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day so be careful out there!