[Photos taken 22 – 30 September 2024, posted online 16 December 2024. Woke up to about 5 cm / 2 inches of snow on the ground. It lightens up the city so I hope it sticks around!]
The pretty shrubs in the back-yard were too tempting not to take photos of. More nature was found by a lovely path along the river close to the music school.
Odd jobs were a-plenty, such as car cleaning, more garage-purging, veggie-box-area-clean-up, epic-failure of a shelf-hanging, studded-bike-tire time, drainage-unclogging, cozy-sweater-hunt, sub-closet-cleaning, and most evenings were spent happily knitting to stay away from doom-scrolling.
Oh, and we finally got our act together and went out on a date-night!
Sunday 22 September 2024
Every time I take my macro lens out for a spin and take hand-held photos, I always regret not bringing the tripod along for that extra bit of sharpness. So these are just fun photos, and I know they’re not “up to standard”.
The shrub in question.
I should probably put these through a sharpener and a de-noiser, but all I’ve done is play with brightness and contrast, because I’m lazy.
More hanging berries, as the sun was setting.
Attempting to get in closer.
Berry-bottom detail, in need of a tripod.
A remaining mostly-green branch.
A pink flower.
The bird-table-house, not quite in use yet. That green-hanging-thing was moldy in the bottom, and I threw it out and replaced it with a new tube for the little birds.
These survived the winter and this “summer”, but just barely.
These “stepmoms” (stjúpur) lasted unusually long this summer “season”.
Anna’s salad that we mostly forgot to eat.
Attempted to take a good photo of the flowering broccoli, but it didn’t go very well.
Flowerless is easier.
Carrot plant from last year from above…
… and sideways.
A loop counting of the sweater I was knitting revealed two errors… one recent in the front, and another older in the back.
Entering the danger-zone.
Sorted the rows into pairs, and sent a photo to a very experienced knitter to help me decipher the knits, to figure out how much I’d actually unraveled, and how to correctly plug the hole.
Monday 23 September 2024
The view from the car wash.
Picking up pre-cooked chicken for a chicken-salad-dinner. There’s an ad screen next to the counter, with the most amazing descriptions in text. This one roughly translates to “crispy, thrilling cold”.
All better now in the front, I left the back error as it was. It wasn’t worth going after.
Tuesday 24 September 2024
Chicken salad for lunch, which is unusual.
Bjarki vacuuming behind his bed in a fit of sudden cleaning energy.
During the tidying up of Bjarki’s room, this shelf was unearthed. It had spent a long time lounging on the floor as it didn’t fit where I originally thought it should go elsewhere in the house. I decided we’d spend 30 minutes fastening it to a wall…
We chose a spot on the blue wall, marked where we’d drill two holes with the heavy drill, as this is a supporting wall, and the concrete is very very hard. The first hole was a beauty, but the second hole a disaster, as the drill hit something that just wouldn’t give…
We tried two other locations, but Every. Single. Time one hole was a beauty, and the other stopped early, even when I pushed in with all my weight!!! I brought out the special-epoxy-mix to fill in the gaping holes we’d made in the beginning.
The following day was pajama/cozy sweater day at school, so we went to purchase something that fit the bill.
Next up was a walk while Emma went to her music lesson.
The dam that makes the lake Elliðavatn.
Found a very cozy looking house.
Small puddle, and the big road visible (and audible) in the distance.
Walking along a sneaky path along the river.
Was a little worried seeing a couple of kids playing by the river, but they seemed to be careful.
In the evening I rallied, filled in the holes with spackle and…
… hung the shelf on the non-support wall in about 15 minutes!
Wednesday 25 September 2024
Waiting for paint at a paint-shop.
Of course you need to buy a chunk of paint even if you need just a smidgeon.
Back at the river, this time during music theory class.
Proof it was me!
Some colorful weeds.
The cozy house again.
I found the well-trodden path along the part of the river that’s closer to the dam.
By the dam again.
It was a windier day than the day before.
Checking out the construction I’d seen some time ago, but it seemed to have ground to a halt.
Another fancy house.
When you’re too far away from the board and you can’t read it!
Frost was predicted, so I put the studded tires under Bjarki’s bike.
Thursday 26 September 2024
The predicted frost visible on a car that had been marked for removal.
Friday 27 September 2024
For a little while we thought this radiator had started leaking, but it turned out the floor drain was clogged, and flooding. That was an easy fix!
Photographing the pile of stuff next to the house. It was time to tidy up a bit!
First up was the veggie-box area, which had gotten little love aside from the tops.
I cleared out the weeds, black plastic and large rocks, and put down an “earth-cloth”.
We’d been keeping a pile of coarse sand for a long while, and I put it on the cloth.
The cross completed. The remainder is more of a headache, and I might need more hands to move pieces of lawn.
Unusually, there were a couple of blue buses waiting for something close to the gym.
Much better! At least partially so.
I’ve claimed the newer sofa in the evenings, and am driving Finnur loopy by playing (AI-generated?) music, usually from YouTube, often accompanied with AI generated imagery.
Time to continue!
Saturday 28 September 2024
Laughing at AI-generated images on YouTube with very varied spellings for “coffee shop”…! There was “Cffee shp” and “offee shop”…
I went hunting for an item in the garage that I may or may not have already tossed out… but first I had to move the bikes to get to the shelves. Happily a family member accepted this bike that’s been hanging around unused for a long time.
Date night!
I was there too!
Yum!
More yum!
Selfie-time!
Walking up to the church so that Bjarki could pick us up in a parking lot.
Such a great lighting job!
A growing sweater!
Sunday 29 September 2024
Emma has claimed that important Lego pieces were trapped under her shelves, so I brought out the drill, unfastened them and we swept under them. The Lego pieces were nowhere to be found…
This comfy chair had served us well, but it was time to let it go.
Bike about to be transported to a new home.
All done with the top-part, time to start on the lower tummy part.
Knitting math.
Back and front connected.
Sleeve-loops on hold.
Monday 30 September 2024
Sisters heading to school in the morning.
The wind had taken the pretty leaves off of the shrub.
Frosty leave edges.
Frozen ex-bloom.
Frozen red leaf.
Red berry bottoms.
Bjarki getting an overhaul.
Taking a bike, that had not been used for a decade, to the repair shop to ask if it was worth repairing it. The answer was no, and so we let it go.
