[Photos taken 01 – 17 March 2023, posted online 26 November 2023. Long time since last post, I got swallowed up prepping for Christmas, lots of computer projects. Not long now until I’m a year behind, sigh!]
It was my turn to celebrate a birthday, as I crossed the 46th annual age-increase-threshold, and two days later we had a 23rd wedding anniversary.
The month included a literal avalance of events and outings. We attended a play, went out to dinner, and visited the summer house. I did a photo-shoot, a hike in the freezing-cold, attended not one but two (!) concerts in Harpa, hosted a sewing club, kept going to the gym, hunting for furniture, arranging hair-cuts, and generally trying to keep my head afloat in the water.
Wednesday 01 March 2023
The birthday girl (me!) with my birthday shake!
It was a sugary day, as I brought a couple of cakes to work, for tea-time.
Some of the sugar guilt was alleviated at the gym post-work.
At a nearby grill-house for dinner.
The siblings.
The shake goblin.
Thursday 02 March 2023
There’s a jogging club at work before lunch on Thursdays. I tried jogging with them, but they were waaaay too fast, so I took a right turn, and went my own way at my own pace.
Being outside is lovely, but getting my ass outside is hard.
Bjarki, freshly shorn.
Finally found a shelving unit that could work ok in the living room.
My arch nemesis, the laundry. Sadly, the laundry basket that has served us faithfully since 2000 (yes, we moved it from the US) is giving up as the handles have finally broken off. But, finding a replacement for perfection is no easy feat!
Friday 03 March 2023
I finally caved and used the Christmas gift card from my job to get myself a proper rig to hold backgrounds for photography. I’ve gone though various methods in the past, but gosh-darnit, tripods are just too amazing.
Saving a practice for posterity.
Spring was in the air!
Finnur’s siblings gave their parents a family trip to the theather for Christmas, pre-show refreshments included.
Us on our 23rd wedding anniversary!
The play was a theatrcial version of the Danish film Druk (Another round). It’s a mediatation on the potentially liberating effects of alcohol, if you’re willing to play the odds, but not everyone wins. The actors are all old buddies, and it was an enjoyable evening!
Saturday 04 March 2023
Ikea shelf-assembly in progress. It’s how you know it’s spring-time!
I almost share a birthday with one of our good friens, so we decided to all go out for dinner. The sky downtown was gorgeous.
The menu.
Fancily arranged food. It tasted good too!
It was a tight fit, but we made do!
Fresh-faced selfie!
Downtown has a smattering of really pretty buildings.
Sunday 05 March 2023
I dug out the big camera, it was time for the first of four family-confirmation photos-shoots I’d been asked to do this spring time, besides one graduation photo-shoot.
The sun trying to break through in the west end of town.
My photo-setup. The new background holder was holding sun-proof-blinds that were taped together to be long enough to reach down to the floor. True photographing backgrounds that I found for sale in Iceland were a) ridiculously expensive, and b) too wide to fit into tight spaces, c) not a pretty color. Now, I’ve had these two umbrellas for a very long time. Each has a Canon flash, controlled by the Canon flash on my camera. Lastly, I’ve been borrowing a LED panel from my brothers, which has really helped, and at some point I’m thinking I should get two of my own.
Some of the results, with photoshop work by my second-oldest brother. Behold my oldest brother’s oldest child. She’s growing up fast!
When the focus really clicks.
I have a new-found respect for ballet-photographers, timing shots is super tricky! Thankfully, second-oldest brother is a photoshop-pro. Notice how there’s no taped background anymore? 🙂
Monday 06 March 2023
Finnur finally found a flower store (the old one he used to frequent shut down!) and I got flowers! 🙂
So. Much. Birdfood. under the tree, now that the snow was all gone.
Tuesday 07 March 2023
When a hole in the offramp-road starts spawning baby-holes, a lady stops and takes a photo to send to the town to remind them to fix it.
The view from the 11th floor. Ironically, this floor used to house a department of my old company (Marel) for a while, and a lot of the interior design is Marel-esque still.
We brought leftovers to our own office building.
Freshly shorn, and blown.
At 6:30 pm I’d arrived at the starting point of a hike with my hiking group. It was veeeeery cold outside, probably -10C/14F.
Up we went, thankfully we were mostly sheltered from the worst of the ice-cold wind.
We found a bit of snow, but mostly the ground was just frozen extremely solid. It made walking easier, beause otherwise many places would have been a muddy mess.
Up, and up some more, I think we were walking up Litli-Meitill. Yes, that’s the ocean off in the distance.
The only place where the wind was uncomfortably strong, but we trudged on onwards.
The view!
It was bizarre to be up there. You could hear the howling wind, but it felt like it was blowin at the other side of the mount, and then hurtling up the peak-side, and straight up, meaning there was precious little wind on the top itself?!
Selfie-time!
We saw the Moon rise in the distance. I cursed not having a better lens and a tripod. But it was also ridiculously cold.
We made it back to the cars!
Thursday 09 March 2023
A frozen world, but still bright at 7:30 in the evening!
Friday 10 March 2023
Building-site making steady progress building the final building of the set.
On a whim I’d bought two tickets to a concert, and invited mom along. We decided to have dinner at the restaurant in Harpa before the show.
Júníus Meyvant is a staple of many a Spotify playlist, and he’s as Icelandic as they get. You’re most likely to have heard the song Color Decay.
This room (Eldborg) blows me away every time I enter. So wonderfully designed!
Mom and myself in our seats.
On my other side was an ex-coworker of mine, also the parent of Emma’s classmate and good friend! Small world!
The concert was very good, although it suffered a bit from things sounding slighly same-y, until the latter-part.
Júníus was joined on the stage with Bríet for one song, where they tried to out-costume each-other. At that point my all-knowing mother informed me that the guitar player in the orange/black-striped jacket was Rubin Pollock, who was dating Bríet at the time (they’ve since split up, according to the tabloids). Said Rubin is the guitarist in Kaleo, another Icelandic band you’ve almost certainly heard songs from. They like recording beautiful videos in unusual places in Iceland.
The lighting department doing a great job! The song was perfect too!
The last song enlisted a male choir, and was also really great! 🙂
Saturday 11 March 2023
Brrrr…. Thankful to have a car I can warm up remotely with an app on my phone!!
Flowers still going strong.
Later that day, I drove up to the summer house.
Doing the outer bit of the suis-vide-ed turkey breasts.
Nice view from the BBQ.
Sky-jo time!
The Northern Lights decided to pay a lively visit, and Finnur got out his trusty phone-tripod and took photos.
Sunday 12 March 2023
Spring arrived the next day, again, as we returned to town.
Quick stop in gorgeous Borgarnes.
Emma likes to order a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich. The big kids had decided to stay in town this time around.
Monday 13 March 2023
I decided to try the super early class on Monday morning, and discovered that the kettle bells in that class-room are all the same size, no matter how heavy they are. Such a weird design choice!
Tuesday 14 March 2023
I took the oldest car in for its (now) annual inspection, which it passed.
I was hosting a sewing club, and the girls helped me by making brownies. Emma insisted on also making cookies for the family.
My annual crepe-making.
Carbs, fat, a bit of protein, and fruits.
It was a cozy evening.
As they left shortly before midnight we discovered the northern lights were going mildly crazy outside for long enough for me to get a photo, before they moved somewhere else.
Wednesday 15 March 2023
Less than a week later, I found myself back in Harpa, for another concert!
This time my consert-buddies were Adda and her older sister.
We’d come to see Jamie Cullum, UK’s piano-playing ball of energy. The band wasn’t on tour exactly, they had just really really wanted to come back to Harpa for a long time, and travel around Iceland, and finally got the chance.
Not many artists venture into the hall, but he did, just pumping up the energy, higher and higher!
Signature jumping-off-the-piano-move achieved! Btw, I have never seen such fun and animated “backup” singers. They were front and center and just ooozed life-joy!
Smiling like loons!
Thursday 16 March 2023
Back down to Earth the following morning, dragging this sled around.
Friday 17 March 2023
My car refused to get going that morning, just flashed a series of warnings in my face. The repair shop was non-commital, but we agreed that it might be updating some software, and to let it be for a few hours.
“Densification of building units” in action by my workplace.
I biked to and from work. In the meantime, Finnur had checked on the car around lunchtime, at which point it had resumed normal operations.
Bench-press day.
En route to the summer-house with the older two, who agreed to join us, because there’d be other kids they could hang out with.
