We have had remarkable support finding people to meet with during this project. (This will be the subject of a future post).

One of the more inspiring visits was to Havari - a farm in the East Fjords run by Berglind Häsler and Svavar Pétur Eysteinsson.

The first thing that hits you is what a beautiful location it is. A lazy green slope to the sea, sheep and lambs fitfully mowing an endless lawn, a yellow lighthouse at land’s end. Birglind and Svavar are both musicians, have their own successful brand of vegan sausages (Bulsur) and are starting a new line of rutabaga chips/crisps. They run a guesthouse they have renovated and an artist's residency… Amongst all of this they have three children and are managing an active farm.

Svavar and Birglind moved here from Reykjavik and epitomise what I can only term the “artist-farmer”; artists using farms as their base of creative operations. What a beautiful concept. We toured their enterprise, ate Bulsur, held baby lambs in their barn, and left with that uplift that comes after meeting people who reconfigure your notions of what is possible.

Svavar’s musical alter-ego is Prins Póló - he and Berglind are in a band together. The two CDs they gave us are now on endless rotation and have become the soundtrack to our experience here. If you want to hear what we are hearing as we move across Iceland you can get them on Spotify here