[Photos taken 11 – 19 May 2023, posted online 13 January 2024. It’s foggy outside!!?!]
The weather took a turn for the not-great, but I still decided to go e-biking in the wind and rain.
Thursday 11 May 2023
Squinting over my glasses as the wind blasted us with rain.
Half an hour earlier, we’d set off from a parking lot by a small lake called Seltjörn (Seal-pond).
The house on the lake was once used as an ice-house. People would gather ice in there, to keep fish cold.
Not in great shape now.
Sneaking past a barrier.
Thankfully, wind is not a huge problem on e-bikes, you still reliably move forward, you just crank up the power. After biking for a bit, we came to an area where sand is harvested from a hill. (An above-ground quarry?)
We biked around the hills.
About to go down that hill, wheeeee!
We transitioned to a power-line road, and it was naaaasty. Lots of sharp rocks.
The top of the hill in the distance is weirdly level. (We’d just been there!)
I think the trip got cut a bit short, but we still biked 18 km!
Thankful for my Gore-Tex shoes! Wet on the outside, dry on the inside.
The Strava track. You can clearly see the cracks in the landscape. This is where the ground is being pulled apart on the seams of the American and European tectonic plates.
Friday 12 May 2023
Emma’s screen-time schedule (as organized by herself) for sick-day from school.
Saturday 13 May 2023
Quick stop a the Kópavogur main library, I discovered a very nice horticulture table.
They now offer a seed-swap. You can take seeds from the collection, if you bring some other seeds to the collection.
Driving to the summer house in less than amazing conditions.
We didn’t know it then, but this storm brought so much salt ashore that it burned the leaves off of many trees, and they blackened for much of the summer.
We swapped the living room furniture around to watch Eurovision on the TV above one of the doors. Finnur has refused any attempts to put the couch back by the windows.
We lost power for a while, so the sauce got whipped using a drill!
Moments before Sweden was crowned the winner. Finland’s entry (the green dude) was suitably bonkers but good to easily win the audience vote, but it wasn’t enough.
Sunday 14 May 2023
Emma finished a jigsaw puzzle she got for her birthday.
About to disassemble the old trampoline.
We found that bottom pipes were rusted and cracked.
Before we hosed the platform down.
A fresh trampoline being assembled.
Strapped down, as best we could.
Pretty mountains as we drove back to town.
Monday 15 May 2023
Heading to lunch. Parts of my company were spending two days off-site at a hotel close to downtown.
Time to get new tubes for the bikes. Trying to figure out the correct sizes.
The Ukrainian delegation arriving, being received by one of our ministers. I managed to take this one photo out the window before being instructed not to take any more.
The collection of jets that had arrived by lunch, as I went for a small walk.
I checked out the new residential area that’s recently risen next to the hotel.
Some of the yards are fenced in.
The hotel.
Actual foreign soldiers carrying actual soldier-stuff to a car.
The airplanes kept arriving.
The “parking lot” by 4 pm.
We’d been warned there’d be road closures, so I’d biked that day.
Hopeful birds.
At home, tiny tomatoes were growing in the window.
Bjarki’s music school band played a few Beatles songs for their end-of-year performance. A good time was had by all.
At home we got a message regarding Bjarki’s upcoming 10th grade graduation trip!
Wednesday 17 May 2023
That morning, Finnur flew to Scotland with his soccer buddies. Sadly he was too injured to participate in the games, but instead he was the team-photographer!
Finnur’s jersey. He’s Mr. Excel (Rose)!
Meanwhile in Iceland, the plants were brought outside over the daytime, to get acclimatized.
Tomato check!
The hiking group getting ready for a hike up Lokufjall.
Where-ish we were going.
Up a little ways from the main highway that we’d parked by.
Well, hello there, you pretty and unexpected canyon!
It never seizes to amaze me how far up you get by just not stopping (for very long).
My thermostat is broken, I was quite toasty!
The cars were down there somewhere.
Made it to the vantage point/peak, where we grabbed something to eat.
I found flowers!
The view from where I snuck off to pee.
Making my way back.
The ocean entering a fjord that goes to the right.
Going down!
Back down again. We clambered down that thing, somehow.
The Strava track.
Thursday 18 May 2023
Easter lilies finally emerging.
I found Anna hiding in a car!
Ugh, a section of the hedge seems to have died. But it’s behind another shrub, so I never did anything about it. Lazy, lazy.
