[Photos taken 01 – 11 February 2022, posted online 09 July 2022. Five working days left until summer holiday starts… to survive I’ve taken to re-reading trashy novels…]
I kept not getting Covid, while Bjarki and Anna recovered. Dad said hi from the parking lot for five minutes before dashing to the airport, and at long last, after I got the final negative PCR result releasing me from the ‘be-careful/quarantine-lite’, Finnur and Emma moved back home.
I went on walks in the cold while waiting on music school lessons to be over, we went to restaurants, but the biggest drama was my car not handling the copious amounts of snow that kept getting dumped on us. In the end I caved in and bought actual winter tires (not all-years), which transformed the car from useless to useable. Phew!
The hiking group resumed operations after the December-January hiatus, and I went on a nice walk in the dark. (75-ish images total)
Tuesday 01 February 2022
February dumped a lot of snow on the capital area. I needed new library books, so I drove to the library in Breiðholt. Was shocked by all the bird-noises, while snow was falling in droves.
Some clever persons planted a lot of trees about 30-40 years ago when this area was developed. These trees now apparently house hoards of birds!
Library entrance, and all the snow.
The lower floor was still hosting the cozy book look.
I guess that libraries have mountains of books that just sit in storage, with nothing to do. These got to be a wall!
Slightly spooky.
More on the upper floor.
Thursday 03 February 2022
Finally, a week after Anna’s covid-diagnosis, I was eligible to take the end-quarantine test. The test-site/processing was under a lot of strain due to ever more infections and thus tests, so results were taking longer and longer to arrive. I showed up at 8 am, in the hopes of getting results in the early afternoon.
About to leave food for the birds. This had a version of haggis in it.
I tried to leave the food under some branches, in the hopes that it wouldn’t get snowed on quite so much.
My dad & Shirley had been in the country for a few days to sort out some paperwork. I kept hoping I’d get my covid test results early enough that we’d have time for tea or something before they left, but at 4:30 pm, I still hadn’t received my covid test results, so they just stopped by on their way to the airport, delivering a much appreciated bag full of chocolates!
As Bjarki was free to resume going to music school, I drove him over and then went for a walk. Was quite surprised to pass a group of Dalmatians with the owners. I vaguely recalled there is a doggy school near by.
It was very cold out!
Salted walking path?
Nature vs the gleaming buildings.
A relic of a bridge, slowly becoming dangerous to humans. I recently noticed the crumbling concrete steps have been built over by wooden steps, I need to check them out later.
Taggers be taggers.
Horses getting a workout.
I suspect the birds appreciate the town pumping hot water into that little pond.
That night, my fight with the laundry machine continued.
Not my most favorite design. That’s nigh-impossible to reach.
Some reclaimed hair.
Life, I’m not in the mood for this.
Finally, at 11 pm and change, I got the negative result I needed to return to normal.
Friday 04 February 2022
Bjarki’s guitar lessons got moved to Friday afternoon, so it was walk part 2 for me.
There are a lot of ravens in that area, I’ve seen 4-5 pairs playing in the wind around the tall buildings near by. Today some rested on street lights.
The forest area was pretty.
Sun low on the horizon around 4 pm.
Emma and Finnur moved back home after being out of the house for two weeks! Emma was happy with the chocolates she got from granddad.
Saturday 05 February 2022
Emma painting a rainbow in her art-cove under the stairs.
Finnur back in his corner on the couch.
I dearly want to get rid of our loud oven, so I went scouting. I think I know what oven I want, and keep waiting for a sale, or for the old oven to fully-die. So far, neither has happened.
These two had earned themselves ice cream for decent school-morning-behavior, so to the ice-cream store we went.
Also on my renewals list are the kitchen chairs. Sadly, I’m not loving the current fashion, so I haven’t found anything to buy yet. Also, ugh, expensive!
Managed to drag Finnur out on a date-night. He was not loving my renewal plans, because if it’s not in smithereens, why replace? Sigh.
The food was surprisingly good though.
Sunday 06 February 2022
Cabin fever was hitting hard, but the weather outside was gorgeous. I dragged these two outside.
Bjarki continued onwards to his friend’s place, but we stopped by the school.
I think Emma went down the big slope once or twice, but wasn’t thrilled about having to haul the sled up herself, so home we went.
At least we made it outside!
I just couldn’t go inside just yet, so I decided to hike up to where they’re making a new neighborhood, on the hilltop above us.
Digger closing the road-to-be.
The digger down in the distance.
the new road cutting through the trees. I hope some of them survive the new development.
Interesting clouds.
The Millennium Falcon got a bit of attention.
Things to do on a Sunday night: finally fetching a good eraser, and erasing the pencil marks left by Emma on Anna’s door some X years ago.
Like magic!
I was tempted to get a hairdryer to warm the alarm clock by 0.1 degree, but the moment would have passed.
Monday 07 February 2022
At 3 am some alarm wailed, waking me up to the fact that the power in the neighborhood was out.
The weather was no good, but the power came back on a little later. This is from 4 am, apparently I was still awake.
Looks like I still managed to drag myself to the gym that afternoon. Yay?
Tuesday 08 February 2022
More snow kept falling. As the power had gone out at house #2, Finnur had gone up there the day before on the big car to make sure everything was ok. He was still away that morning, but Anna needed to go to school to give a final-project presentation in person. As luck would have it, my car got immediately stuck as she swung out onto the road, and it took a gang of neighbors to push it up to the top of the hill. It just had no traction, and in places it was too low to clear the snow.
At that point I told Anna to just go home and contact the school. She would not be making it in person, and she ended up giving her presentation remotely. Thank goodness for covid-updated schools! I drove down the hill, hoping to get into an excavated parking space by the daycare, but those were full. As I turned into a parking space by the mid-rises to make a u-turn, I promptly got stuck in what looked like not a lot of snow at all. But, the snow was too something, the area under the tires was turning into glass, and the car wasn’t getting traction.
My car is the furthest on the right. As I could see other cars could pass it, I left it there, and walked home.
Spot the birds.
Finnur arrived shortly after lunch, and the three of us went to liberate my car. Looking at it driving, it became very apparent my “whole year” tires were just filling up with snow and not getting any sort of grip. I resolved to get better tires, and if those wouldn’t work, I entertained selling the car and getting a front-wheel or all-wheel driver. (The Id.3 has a rear-wheel drive.)
Later that evening I heard one or two cars getting stuck, as the overwhelmed snow-clearing-crew hadn’t managed to clear our street. I think Finnur went out to help with that one.
Wednesday 09 February 2022
I looked out that morning, and saw that our snow-laden-tree was taking up a huge amount of our parking space.
A saw and a little bit later, I’d reclaimed the parking area.
Sorry tree!
Fetching bread and things for lunch.
After consulting a winter-tire ranking list, I made an appointment to get new tires, Continental VikingContact 7s. Thankfully they could squeeze me in later that day.
Much to my huge relief, the car finally had traction in snow, and the old Bridgestone Blizzak tires got promptly downgraded from “all-year” to “not in ice and snow”, as I’d been fishtailing around round-a-bouts all winter long. They do fine in rain though.
A sight for sore eyes!
That evening, my hiking group reconvened at the outskirts or the capital.
In the middle of the hike, we passed a parked car, where our guides had stored a table, refreshments, and a guitar!
Hot chocolate courtesy of our guides!
Company owner strumming away in the green (multicolored) led light.
Story time. That lake has a tragic story attached to it (don’t they all?).
Feeling tired but energized.
Thursday 10 February 2022
This was a brought-the-gym-clothes-but-forgot-the-gym-shoes kind of day.
Friday 11 February 2022
We went out to dinner with friends! I can’t remember the occasion, but the food was mostly good, the environment tasteful, and we had a nice time. I can’t remember if there was a reason, but hey, does one always need a reason?!
