Green Walls, Doggy-School & Kitchen Time

2020-09-01Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 15 September 2020, posted online 28 February 2021. A little bit of snow on the ground today, but it won’t last. No new local Covid-19 cases diagnosed outside of quarantine since 01 Feb 2021. Currently living through an earthquake-o-rama, more quakes felt in the past week than in many years prior.]

September is always a month of adjustments back to regular schedule.

Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts and poor health meant that Finnur ended up taking the puppy to doggy school instead of the primary caretakers, and Anna tagged along a lot.

My usual September-redecoration-madness returned on schedule, and I spent a fair bit of time painting walls. Anna was finally freed of her braces, and she did a fair amount of baking to celebrate. Covid-19 cases kept coming at steady pace and authorities began pushing mildly on the societal brakes, and we remained cautiously optimistic. Some jogging happened, as the weather was mostly amazing. (80-ish images)

Tuesday 01 September 2020

Finnur and Anna with Spori the puppy on the lawn outside the puppy school.
Waiting for a treat.
That evening I fortunately had the presence of mind to drown the berries I’d picked in sugar, so they’d keep a few days, as I had not mental energy to turn them into jell-o.

Wednesday 02 September 2020

Emma getting picked up from school to go straight to a piano lesson. Happily, the town agreed to put money into a new play-structure, as the old one was sad, small, and boring.

Thursday 03 September 2020

Anna, barely awake, about to get her braces removed.
One happy camper some two hours later!
That afternoon I took Emma on a shop-o-rama. We were unable to find her old gymnastics clothes (we found them a month or two later, hidden in a random bag in the laundry room, followed by an “oh, of course!”) so we went to get a new set. This was the favorite out of 10 or so she tried.
Next stop: New shoes from the outlet down the hill as she’d outgrown her other ones. These are a size 38 in euro sizes / about 7.5 in US women’s sizes / 5.5 in UK sizes.
To finish off the insane shopping day, we then went to buy her ice-skates, as she had decided to start going to practices. My credit-card wept, but the kid was happy. Thankfully, days like these don’t happen very often!
Anna was in a good mood after finally getting rid of her braces, and made strawberry-rhubarb pie!

Friday 04 September 2020

It was a GORGEOUS day. Anna was signed up for a badminton class at school, but covid prevented actual lessons. Instead, they had to run/walk/bike a certain distance per week and log to Strava. Anna and I went out to run ‘together’ but it turned into a live action remake of the tortoise and the hare. Anna would sprint past me, then walk for a bit, as I caught up on my slow and steady pace. Then she began dropping behind as her feet began aching, and I finished quite a big ahead of her. I may have preened.
Hi there.
Golfer golfing.
We went around the lake. The whole route is about 7 km.
Still moving, Anna somewhere behind me.
Still my longest run. I began avoiding the lake as it was so popular.
That evening Finnur took off with Emma to house #2, and I took the kids out to TGIF for dinner.

Saturday 05 September 2020

It was now or never for the berries.
About to bring to a boil.
Boiled/steralized small jars in a separate pot.
Blubb, blubb.
Straining the liquid into jars. Next year I’ll try to remember to buy thick plastic gloves. This stuff was hot!
Berry sludge.
The result!
I needed to gather some odds and ends before driving up to house #2. Ikea remained open, but the restaurant was closed. And only three people could enter the swiveling door at a time, which meant there was a line of people to get in.
Big enough to hold the stairs?
I had begun fantasizing about a green lobby to house #2, so the final stop before driving out of town was the paint store.
Candidates.
A few hours later, the candidates were on the wall. We picked the friendly light-green, aptly named Take A Break.
The winner.
Meanwhile, in town, the big kids went to the movies to see Tenet!

Sunday 06 September 2020

It looked like it was about to rain, so I was outside before 9 am to strip the trampoline before winter hit.
Half an hour later, the trampoline soft-bits were inside the rec-room, mostly dry. Phew!
I decided to finish off the tester-paint. I wasn’t 100% happy with the color, but it would do.
Emma modeling the Calm Nude color a bedroom wall.
For reference.
I’d promised to go out with Emma to pick some blueberries. I’d remembered to bring my macro lens, but no tripod, so the results were all a bit shaky.
Not quite ready.
Get in my tummy.
It was rainy and windy.
We didn’t have a lot of time or patience to actually pick a lot of berries.
They looked nice though!
It stopped raining for a few minutes.
Pretty!
I stopped by at my favorite cafe on the way back for a bit of re-fueling. Always good for the soul.
Less good for the soul: Having 8 km left on the battery. I’m fantasizing about a new car later this year.

Monday 07 September 2020

Anna randomly baked “corners” (horn).
Good stuff.
Yum, yum!
I was still in paint-land, and decided to use the testers I had left to paint a wall in our bedroom.
Yeah, ok. That’s a NO.

Tuesday 08 September 2020

I decided it would be a better idea to walk around rather than sit down at a cafe while waiting for music lessons to be over.
Long-ish wave radio antennas. I think they also broadcast TV signals from there still.
Mount Esja on the right.

Thursday 10 September 2020

Bjarki in the backyard.
Another hand-held macro image, the focus range is veeery tiny!
Spori the puppy waiting for my brother to pick him up post-school.
You gonna throw the ball?
How about now?

Friday 11 September 2020

After a quick jog in the gorgeous weather.
Bird food.
But, winter was around the corner, so it was time to try on new and bigger gloves.

Saturday 12 September 2020

Still on the hunt for paint. Emma found her dream wall color. I said no.
Now we’re talking! That green was one of the colors we tried up at house #2, but it didn’t fit. That gray in the lower right corner was supposed to be green-ish, haha, very funny.
Before I forgot, I took a photo of what the summer vacation ended up looking like. All those green things on top got covid-delayed.
Calzone for dinner!

Sunday 13 September 2020

About 6 months after buying a new ceiling light for Anna, we finally got around to swapping out the old one.
Amateur tip: Take a photo of the wiring before disconnecting everything!
All hands on deck!
Green-ish wall, check. Now we have the rainbow covered as you look into the bedrooms: Anna’s is Red, Emma’s is Yellow, Our’s is Green, and Bjarki’s is Blue. Mission accomplished!
The green I used.
There were some nasty holes left on one of the walls from a removed tv-mount, and the bathroom work, so I decided to also paint the white walls, a slightly more lively off-white.
Hard to go wrong with off-white.
Status at 8 pm. How do I get myself into these situations?!

Monday 14 September 2020

Happily the off-white only needed one coat, but one extra bump needed a bit of attention, and then I claimed victory!

Tuesday 15 September 2020

Emma made a gym plan. I don’t remember when the sports practices for kids got covid-shut down, but they did for almost two months in the fall.
We had a near fire-incident around lunchtime, as a flat-bread had managed to wedge itself inside a toasting slot that gets very little use, and then proceeded to almost catch fire.
New curtains (which still haven’t been hemmed, ahemm), and photos where we can see them from the doorway. Also, never trust wide-angled lenses, the room is not nearly that big!