[Photos taken 24 – 31 August 2024, posted online 19 November 2024. Iceland is living up to its name these days.]
The day after the volcanic eruption began, we were invited to dinner a hop and a skip away. In daylight on the way there, there wasn’t much to see, but when we drove back the sky was dark and the volcano was in full “show-mode”. This time around the road towards Grindavík was open part of the way, so we joined the other spectators there for a bit.
The week was spent doing more odd-jobs, such as staining and clearing and sorting various things. I also finally finished the Lego Mars rover I got for Christmas! That weekend I met friends at an art-house, and then drove to the summer house to spend quality time with more friends.
Saturday 24 August 2024
Quite cool, er… warm!
Earlier that day, on our way to dinner with friends. You can see the smoke rising from the ground in the distance.
Not looking at the smoke to his side.
Dinner was scrumptious!
The volcano plumes visible from the backyard!
Pretty cool!
You could easily see the volcano from the main road, but we turned off of it, and went along the road to Grindavík, about as far as it was open.
Short animated gif from a video of the view, wait for it to load. It was quite fortunate that the wind was coming from the north-ish.
There was a long line of cars and people milling about. Some started walking towards the fires, which is a terrible idea, as the area is all very coarse old lava.
Back on the main road.
The view from our backyard!
Sunday 25 August 2024
Ominous post-it note, covering…
… cookies! (Emma’s taken to making cookies to bring along with her when attending birthdays of friends.)
One of about three instances all “summer” where I sat down in the backyard to enjoy a bit of sunshine. The poor peas had a hard time all summer in the pouring rain. It wasn’t until we put them in that spot where they were semi-sheltered from the incessant rain that they got going.
Going through some old clothes, found this old t-shirt.
Awww…
A bag about to take a trip to the recycling center, along with a car-fill of other stuff
Monday 26 August 2024
First actual day of school, and thus all three kiddos were back on the school-train.
It hadn’t rained for a day or two so I could finish staining the garbage bin shed. It turned out the color of the stain was different if it dried in direct sunlight, so I tried to make a sun-shelter.
Supposedly the same color? The two had different treatments, as the vertical stuff got a primer and slight film, but more bizarrely, the primed roof looked a lot like the unprimed deck, so I began wondering if this color was surface-tilt-sensitive?!?! But, all surfaces now had color, and we’ll let it weather for at least a year.
Tuesday 27 August 2024
Next up on the odd-jobs list was this cupboard, which had reached the point where a thing fell out if you tried to put something in.
Yeah, yeah… I guess no one’s going to be using these, no matter how environmentally amazing they are.
The lower cupboard has similarly been a thorn in my side for a long time.
For some unknown reason, pens and pencils had taken up chaotic residence on the top shelves in both cupboards.
All that remained, and this time the selves were labeled! So much space!
So useful!
Emma about to crack open her soap making kit.
Yup, soap making kit!
Soap-making!
Cooling soap!
The birds got some slightly expired chopped nuts nobody was going to use.
That evening, I unearthed my partially-assembled Lego-rover, and continued assembling it.
Huge progress!
Wednesday 28 August 2024
Exciting breakfast, not.
Dropping mom off at the airport for her flight to visit the family in Sweden. I’m grateful for flights that leave late in the morning!
The volcano was still erupting, and had gotten taller since that weekend, with the activity concentrated into much fewer spurts. The outwards spread had also calmed down a lot.
Selfie from the road, volcano stuff going on over my head.
I drove onto the road to Grindavík, but was too lazy to exit the car. There were a number of people there, some hiking towards the volcano.
Later that day, the news broke that my old employer had laid off 150 people. It was quite the shock, so I went to meet a few of my old team-mates, ending up actually visiting the old office to give people hugs.
Hair-cut time!
Emma, freshly shorn.
Still very bright at 7 in the evening. Sunset that day was at 9 in the evening.
Thursday 29 August 2024
The weather was so gorgeous that I decided to e-bike to the cafe I frequent in the mornings.
It requires going up and over one sizeable hill. The view makes it worth it.
My morning habit.
Biking back, it was hard to spot the volcano cloud.
Anna had a waffle-craving, the rest of us benefitted.
Orchid of the Sweden-family was doing well, as I’m forbidden to water it. It’s totally Anna’s responsibility.
Emma took it upon herself to test all the pens and colors that had emerged out of the cupboards.
It was a lot of colors!
That evening I got started on the last of the Lego-satchels.
All done!
Friday 30 August 2024
Lunch, with cold salmon leftovers to increase the protein content.
The lower cupboard was that day’s target.
Picking up some pizzas on the way home from the gym, it had been a long day.
Saturday 31 August 2024
The veggie top holes kept getting bigger as windy storms visited.
Arriving at Kjarvalsstaðir art center to meet some friends for a late lunch.
There was a really interesting show on, featuring paintings from trained artists to “hobby-ists” of their homesteads.
