Early autumn signs

When I came home from work today the sun was shining, it was warm and there was no wind (quite a difference to the snow storm and the pouring rain and wind gusts a few days ago). And I felt like hiking and running and photographing and writing and posting a letter which has been lying around for a couple of days. Quite a lot of things! So I thought a bit about this and then decided to go on a trip which combines all of the above. I packed a little backpack with my camera and the letter, laced my running shoes and headed for Snorri's little shop at the Hraunfossar waterfalls, 6 km from Húsafell. There is a paved road between Húsafell and Hraunfossar and there is also a horse path. I ran the first four kilometres on the paved road. Now, since september has come, there is not much traffic anymore, which makes it possible to run on the road without worrying too much about cars. Climbing over two fences leads to a gravel path leading through little downy birch forests directly to the Hraunfossar waterfalls. I ran-hiked the path and took some photos on the way. Autumn has arrived and is changing the landscape slowly and I tried to catch the early autumn signs with the camera. Here is a little slide show:

View on the lava field Hallmundarhraun, the Húsafell forest and the mountains Tunga, Strútur and Eiríksjökull glacier.

View on Oköxl, a part of the glacier Ok, the smallest glacier of Iceland.

Seed heads of white dryas (Dryas octopetala).

Icelandic downy birch forest still in summer colours.

The first leaves have become yellow and orange.

Black crowberries (Empetrum nigrum). They are edible and mellow now.

Birch bolete (Leccinium scabrum), a wide-spread edible mushroom in Iceland, forming mycorrhiza with the birch trees.

Last but not least a sheep portrait. Did you know that there are several times as many sheep and lambs on Iceland (more than a million) than humans (320.000)?