[Photos taken 20 – 31 May 2023, posted online 14 20 January 2024. An eruption started early this morning last Sunday just outside the town of Grindavík. Three houses were burned down as lava entered the town itself. The protective wall successfully diverted most of the lava past the town, look for insane footage of the machines being rescued off of the wall as lava surrounds it, and then later in the day closing a wall-gap where the main road was. The ground is all cracked as parts of the town sunk by 1 m, and it’s very dangerous being in town. One road worker died as the ground collapsed under his feet a few days before the eruption. The town remains evacuated, and will be for the foreseeable future.]
Finnur transitioned from a soccer-group-trip to Scotland to working from London the following week, getting the royal treatment at my dad’s & Shirley’s! Meanwhile, I assigned-dinner making to the kids, one dinner each, as Mon/Wed/Fri afternoon gym-class cuts into dinner-prep time.
We all survived the lack of true-chef, and then transitioned over to attending junior-college graduation parties. All this was mixed in with some outdoors-ing.
Saturday 20 May 2023
Turns out there were grass-seeds in the bird feed, that the birds didn’t like… See the bright green patch of grass under the feeders??
It’s clever of plants to show that they are REALLY THIRSTY! This is Anna’s cherry tomato plant.
First ever rechargeable battery via usb cable I’ve seen!
Bjarki had a math final coming up, and needed to get his head around a couple of concepts that had eluded him at the start of the year. We headed to a cafe to catch up.
All math-ed out by 6 pm, and time to head to our friends for dinner.
Lovely tulips in Hafnarfjörður.
I cleverly invited the four of us to dinner (Finnur abroad), and then sent the kiddos home with Anna, who’d driven Emma and herself there.
We made progress!
Sunday 21 May 2023
I was feeling industrious, and roped Anna into helping me haul big stuff from the garage to the recycling center.
Emptied!
Yay, mostly walkable again!
Hail?!
Monday 22 May 2023
Letting Anna know that I’d moved the plants out to acclimatize them.
Time to try deadlifting a new personal record (PR) of 140 kg.
Animated gif of the 140 kg PR lift (need to wait for it to load). Next time I need to remember to put the weights down properly. Haven’t repeated this since that day, as I discovered my left shoulder was not using all the muscles available to it, and it started bugging me for real in June. Also need to get a belt that fits better.
Emma’s turn to cook dinner. She opted for boiled eggs and pasta, with ketchup or tomato pasta sauce on the side.
Preparing salad.
Tuesday 23 May 2023
My Tuesday-morning gym-buddy pushing the weighted sled.
I went to Costco, took a photo for Anna to remotely choose what I should buy. It’s hard to do though, as the phone signal is atrocious in there.
Proof that I actually cooked dinner!
Emma was amazed by the peaches we got at Costco. Sadly, peaches disappeared as quickly as they’d appeared this year.
Our trusty 13-year old dishwasher had begun repeatedly failing with E:09, but that was the end-of-life one. There was no recovery.
Wednesday 24 May 2023
Hmmm, maybe time to spring-clean the BBQ?
Bjarki made dinner, and he opted for hamburgers. Here he´s cleaning the BBQ post-grilling.
Dinner!
Taking a photo of the plumbing situation before I disconnected the old dishwasher. You live, you learn.
About to be ejected. Earlier that day I’d popped into a local store and bought a new dishwasher. They offered to dispose of the old one when dropping off the new one, and since I’d finally hauled the old washing machine to the recycling center after it had lounged in the garage for a month, I readily said “yes, please” to that.
A hole-y kitchen.
Thursday 25 May 2023
The other sled at the gym…
So green!
The e-biking group met up at 6 pm one town over. I biked to the meeting point from home. This is a new athletic center, which always feels half-finished because of the arty-sparse-lumber “decorations”.
Biking by a marshy area. New neighborhood, still under construction, in the distance.
I think we ended on top of that hill there at some point?
Here and there in the area you find surprise-trees.
Fairly new building for one of the scout clubs in the area. Looked very nice!
The path ahead.
By one of the bunkers from world war two.
We made it down the hill, and to a nice spot to eat a little bit.
Colors.
We biked back towards civilization via a nice path through a rough lava-field.
By the end of the path is this cave, I HAD NO IDEA! My old workplace is a hop and a skip away.
A bit of splashing on the way back.
On the path past my old workplace. All that rather fresh lava makes one a little uncomfortable now that the volcano systems on the peninsula are waking up again.
One of the famous houses in the rich-people’s neighborhood of Flatir. I biked home soon afterwards.
Strava track
Friday 26 May 2023
Grass rapidly getting greener!
The rain helping the grass!
First of the junior-college graduation parties!
The proud mother and graduate!
Yummy!!
Saturday 27 May 2023
It was a beautiful day!
Cozy dreams sometimes do come true.
Cherry tomatoes getting bigger.
I set up a mini-photo-studio upstairs…
… as I’d promised to take a few photos of another fresh graduate!
The graduate! This was my first time using my 100 mm fixed lens for portraits, and oh boy, so much fun!
The family!
These two are always hilarious to photograph!
Such a great achievement! Graduating should never be taken for granted!
Afterwards we joined them for a proper party!
A day of joy for sure!
Sunday 28 May 2023
The following day was much less pleasant weather-wise. I hid the young plants behind a chair to protect them from gusts of wind!
New shiny thing!
Decompressing with a friend at a cafe, always a good thing!
A tie!! I was meld-queen though (yellow row)!
Monday 29 May 2023
I was about to start weeding when I discovered that a lot of baby-birch-trees from the trees next door had taken root. These things cost actual money at plant nurseries! I sent a message to a person that is cultivating a new land, and they agreed to come and gather the babies.
We deemed it safe to plant some plants outside. It’s always a bit risky, as it can still freeze over in the night far into June.
Broccoli is hardy! It was a great success this year!
These were not deemed ready.
Tuesday 30 May 2023
Haircut time for Mr. Shaggy.
All tidy for his 10th grade graduation!
Wednesday 31 May 2023
After work, I met up with my hiking group and hiked up mount Meðalfell, which literally translates to Mount Average.
It’s a really pretty area. The cars are visible down by the road. Outside the image, on the “right” side, is a bigger lake, and lots of summer houses.
Fun rock formations.
We finished hiking upwards, and were rewarded with this nice view up the nearby valley. It was rather warm out!
Our guide by the peak-cairn.
A bit of R&R while looking north-ish.
Walking along the flat top, to look over the summer-house area.
Yours truly!
On the way back down the clouds moved, and we saw a bit of blue sky!
Lichen.
The Strava track, click to enlarge.
Still light out at 23:10, and Anna’s tomato plant looking pretty happy. Thus end-eth May 2023!
