[Photos taken 01 – 11 Sept 2023, posted online 04 June 2024. Weather warnings all over Iceland this week, with snow in the north, strong winds etc. “June”, you say?]
Autumn arrived with a bang, as high winds pushed sheets of rain under our balcony, soaking the hiding sofa-pillows. I caved and moved the pillows inside, stacking the units left outside for winter.
Finnur’s foot was still quite bad, so the garbage-shed project was put on hold for a bit.
Instead I rearranged furniture. Most notably I dismantled my unloved front-room Covid-home-office, and moved the kid-sized Ikea-desk and chair up to Emma’s room, which resulted in a nasty pile of stuff in the hallway, and a wall in dire need of spackling and paint.
Anna made morale-boosting bagels, there was high-tea and dinner with friends, we had family over at the summer house, and I hung out at the gym.
Friday 01 September 2023
The first autumn storm had me moving the outside pillows inside, and stacking the rest for winter…
Drying…
Garbage bins moved to shelter… we really needed a wind-proof-garbage-shed!
The status of said “shed”… as the wind lashed the vegetation.
Saturday 02 September 2023
My two red-heads crowding in a chair.
We decided Emma’s room was in dire need of attention. She helped me clear stuff out, there was a lot she’d stopped using.
This corner was the main focus. With Emma’s sprouting, her dresses no longer fit the hanger-space, and with the addition of thick bell-bottom-ish cotton pants, the drawers were in no way big enough to contain her regular clothes. Action was needed!
Later that afternoon we drove to have dinner with friends. The remains of the storm hung around, and the sea was angry.
Protein. Yummy protein.
Dinner approaching!
Sunday 03 September 2023
After moving Emma’s clothing to a more spacious unit, we continued our clear-out of Emma’s room.
Anna helped morale by making bagels.
Sooo goooood!
Phew!
Phew #2! The plan was to take the hanger-unit to the summer house, move the four drawers into the corner, remove the drawer from the unit under the hanger-unit, and stack the box-frame on top of the drawer-unit. Yay for modular Ikea design!
Meanwhile, the hallway upstairs had seen neater days…
This being earthquake-country, everything was anchored into the walls…
Oh dear… some of the wall came out with the screws…
The main offenders were these plastic spacers on the back of the shelves.
Hunting for the spackle in a garage full of timber and un-recycled recyclables…
Victory!
Round one of spackle…
By dinner-time the corner was rearranged, but with the wall in tatters, there was still quite a bit to do.
Monday 04 September 2023
I took on a new role at work, and me and another woman formed “The Data Corner” inside our team. We made sure to always have high-quality 85% chocolate on hand for needy co-workers (and ourselves).
I dug out the color name of the wall in Emma’s room, only to find out, much to my dismay, that Flugger had changed their paint recipe since we’d painted, and the paint no longer quite matched.
Emma making good use of her “new” (my old) desk to play with the crazy slime.
Tuesday 05 September 2023
Sweaty remains of myself at the gym.
Got my screening-mammogram over with.
Walked along the river while Emma had her piano lesson that afternoon.
Found a fisherman.
A little trickle.
The remains of a vehicle.
Wednesday 06 September 2023
Dried spackle after the 2nd or 3rd round. I like to do multiple tidy rounds, building up layers, rather than lathering on thick and then needing to sand stuff down.
The end of that day’s gym session.
This was the summer where I learnt where not to place the sunflowers, as they didn’t quite flower all the way.
Thursday 07 September 2023
That morning’s play buddies.
Fruit-subscription box was full of mangoes! Buying mangos in the big grocery stores is usually a disappointing experience, more often than not the mangos are brown inside. These aged beautifully.
Big carrots from the veggie garden!
Looks like I made dinner!
Friday 08 September 2023
At the 5td grade parental meeting, going over the rules for the school-issued iPads that they’d get to take home with them for the first time a few weeks later. This year the township finally implemented a limited app-store.
Saturday 09 September 2023
Prepping for departure to the summer house, where Finnur’d invited his parents and all the siblings for an overnight stay.
We’d decided to eat lunch in Borgarnes town, at the Englendingavík restaurant (that dark house on the right).
The tiniest spoon!
The view out the back.
Reading a historic plaque.
Story-time about people that left in 1900 to start a new life in Canada, seemingly donated by descendants that had visited Borgarnes in 2005.
A place to haul cargo/boats out of the sea.
Looking back towards the restaurant.
This anchor had seen better days.
By the toy-museum entrance next to the restaurant.
New shelving?
Up in the attic.
It looked like somebody had been playing.
Blasts from the past.
There was stuff everywhere!
Peking-duck for dinner!
Sunday 10 September 2023
Brunch before we packed up and drove on home.
Sewing-club high-tea!
Whoa! So pretty!
Lovely weather after all the weather-drama the week before.
Monday 11 September 2023
Somebody forgot to unplug a sandwich-grill, and the smoke caused the fire-alarm to go off. Thankfully nothing too bad happened, but we got to hang out outside for a while.
My brother showed up to teach his lifting class all oiled up, as he’d been participating in a photo-shoot for the new exercise-room that was being opened a few doors down. I found it too hilarious to not take a photo!
