[Photos taken 15 – 22 June 2024, posted online 24 September 2024. Fall colors are everywhere.]
With mom in good hands in Sweden, it was time to finish the big mom-move, as in fully clear and clean the old apartment. It was a good thing I was out of a job, as I needed a few days to recover after each session.
There were a few big events, such as a Jacob Collier concert, visiting the Hvammsvík hot springs, an MBA graduation, and Stanford alumni get-together.
As we were feeling pretty happy with the prototype veggie-box enclosure Anna and I had designed and built, we got Finnur to source more wood, and then I used dry days to build more.
In between it all, I tried to visit the gym on weekdays, and slowly nudge myself back to health.
Saturday 15 June 2024
Walking home from a university graduation party a little past midnight. The weather was amaaazing!
I put on a dress!
The sewing club, with our newly-minted MBA! I prefer hiding in the shadows!
Such luck to get perfect garden-party weather!
Their garage sports a fully functional dart-board, with scoring cameras!
Sunday 16 June 2024
The following day we borrowed a trailer from a family member, and proceeded to recycle the furniture mom would not be bringing over to her new place. These wooden pieces were much loved, but there was no space for them.
I was yet again forbidden from carrying stuff as my back was still fragile, but finally healing.
The master stacker on duty.
Many, many, many years ago, one of the brothers got a Case of the Arts, and decorated a closet door with permanent markers. My brilliant sister-in-law had contemplated how to clean the door for years, and as it was now or never, she got to work.
The internet being useful for once! She remembered a video where a non-permanent marker was used to dissolve permanent markers. It worked! (Or as a friend taught me: “Like dissolves like.”) It was however not a sustainable way to clean a whole door, so she went on the hunt for other dissolvers.
Moving this dust-infested art-chest towards the new place, before throwing out the chest itself.
Our motto was that no woven baskets would survive the move, as they just collect dust. I therefore moved the contents into a plastic box, picking up a few samples for closer inspection. Among the pile was this painting from grandma to one of my brothers on his birthday.
The vast majority was art by the brothers, much of it from school.
Anna spent the afternoon making macarons, yum-to-be!
That evening we ate at the food-hall next to Harpa, as we had a concert to attend!
The architects responsible for this area apparently hate trees and greenery. It might be because there’s no true ground left under this walkway, it’s all a parking garage down there.
I don’t often approach Harpa from this direction. Trying to figure out where the horizontal horizon lies is tricky.
People arriving.
The stage was suitably colorful to prep the arrival of the always colorful Jacob Collier.
There were people sitting on every level. Somewhat unusually, the start of the concert got delayed by half an hour, no explanation why. When he finally appeared he was so energetic that it took him a song or two to calm down. Maybe they got stuck in traffic?!
The concert was fun and engaging. His favorite activity seems to be taking old universally known songs, playing around with them, and then getting the audience to sing along, usually by sections.
At one point he was joined on stage by his mom, whose birthday it was! We all sang happy birthday to her!
Directing his choir (us).
The crowd departing…
The view shortly before 11 in the evening.
So brownish-graaaay.
The sky at midnight, as the summer equinox approached.
Independence Day – Monday 17 June 2024
Anna continued making her macarons.
Raspberries in a jar.
The combination.
Bringing out the big camera.
Emma hovering around, hoping for a bite.
Coming along, slowly, but surely.
Hungry yet?
Posing for the camera.
The green ones would contain pistachios.
I brought my gear outside, and set up for some woodworking.
Hoping it wouldn’t rain.
Wishing I had three arms. My chin had to do.
Looking acceptably square.
The square fastened onto the veggie box, and stiffened. The acrylic cloth was protecting some late-planted salad seeds. Everything was late that summer.
As it was our 24th “relationship anniversary”, we’d decided to use a gift-card and visit the hot springs at Hvammsvík, a little ways out of the city.
Quite a few cars in the parking lot. I’d been told that they are less busy in the late afternoons-to-evening, so we were there at 18:30.
It was a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the facilities themselves.
The facilities. The back half of the barracks houses the (steam-punk) changing rooms, while the outgrowth is the reception/bistro/bar area. The hot tubs lie below the house, towards the sea.
Helpful information.
An areal photo of the site.
“Please be careful. Rocks / paths / beach can have rough edges. Ocean is very cold. Hot springs can be very hot. Enter the ocean at your own risk.”
They have a bar by the pool.
Nice views. That’s the Atlantic ocean over there…
The two of us.
There’s a smattering of hot tubs, all a bit different. While we were there, a couple of people went out on paddle boards.
There was a lifeguard on duty, but he seemed to be mostly picking up empty plastic glasses left here and there.
After a good soak we stopped by at the bistro they have by the reception.
Seafood soup before the addition of the soup!
All done!
Now to walk to the car…
Tuesday 18 June 2024
One thing I like about the gym I go to is the continual improvements. Every year they pick an area and give it a facelift. This time it was the reception/food station.
It was the kind of day where I decided to sort the weights into the correct shelves. They were all mixed up, grrr!
Much better!
Unusually good view of the insides of a treadmill.
Feeling momentarily smug and accomplished. It didn’t last very long.
I stopped by the new apartment to examine the curtain holders that were already present. The previous owner hadn’t bothered to put up very many rods, so we needed to fill in the gaps. From the looks of it, these came from Ikea, and a trip there confirmed it.
The salad box getting a lid!
Two boxes done!
Ugh, the bugs were eating the redcurrant plants again…
Anna brought in some flowers from the back yard, which immediately caused Finnur to start sneezing. They didn’t get to stay for very long.
Impressive phone-camera capabilities!
Wednesday 19 June 2024
I was flabbergasted when I saw these two cars outside the coffee house. It turned out the car on the left had slid backwards out of the parking lot and swung just so to gently kiss the other vehicle. As I was taking this photo the people responsible for the offending car came out to ask if the other one was mine, and then it transpired that BOTH cars were rentals!
Met a friend at the cafe! He had to run, but it was nice saying hi!
Tempting shoulder-fate. It seemed to hold.
Back at woodworking.
Anna wasn’t feeling very well, but agreed to come out and staple the cloth in before assembly. It was a lot easier.
Not a bad day’s work.
Thursday 20 June 2024
Sometimes the coffee house fills up with what appear to be busloads of tourists. This time it sounded like a minibus of Italians.
Pulling backwards is good stuff.
Felt like posing. It’s harder than it looks!!?!
Very pretty fruit delivery!
That afternoon, I made my way downtown for the first ever Stanford alumni gathering anyone has ever tried to organize.
Plants emblematic of the summer we were having… good days but oh so much rain.
The meet-up was held in a side-room of a “private” club (not pictured), and it was really nice seeing familiar faces, and chatting to some new people.
Grabbing dinner before heading home. I realized too late that I’d stopped three doors too early to get really good fish.
Friday 21 June 2024
By this point I’d gotten thoroughly tired of doing my physio exercises, so I began doing random things.
At home, a recovering Anna was making Creme-Brule.
Sushi for dinner!
Anna melting sugar while Bjarki looks on.
Oh yeah!
Anna’s group of friends were heading into a LOTR marathon that weekend. I dug up our DVDs (which we still own!!) and dusted off our DVD player. It still worked!
Testing our inflatable mattresses. There would be a sleep-over.
Saturday 22 June 2024
Back at it, now with a new chemical arsenal!
Somehow these were still hiding in the kitchen?!
Wow! Epic success!! (We won’t mention that the closets themselves are due for an upgrade…!)
After much scraping and wiping and vacuuming and washing we deemed the apartment “cleared and cleaned”. Now we just had to remove the last bits, and vacuum the stairs to hide our tracks… I won’t say just how long all this sat in the trunk of my car before I had the energy to sort through it…
We discussed roping other family members into helping, but figured we’d spend more mental and physical energy directing and instructing others, than just getting it quickly over and done with, ourselves. So stereotypically female!
A few hours later, I’d driven myself to the summer house, and ate a fantastic dinner.
Emma attempting to harness what little wind was present.
