[Photos taken 20 – 24 May 2025, posted online 06 April 2026. Stormy day outside.]
The heatwave continued on, and I joined a few friends for a free guided evening hike close to the capital area. Apparently some of Game of Thrones was filmed around there.
As the weather just kept being awesome, we began sanding and staining various wooden surfaces which needed it, at seemingly all hours of the long days. I got a spring-haircut, we became unwitting hosts to a few mice (which Finnur excitedly removed), and attended a graduation party. The kids are growing up!
Tuesday 20 May 2025
With the insane temperatures still reigning, I biked to work, and had to stop to photograph this beautiful view on the way.
Biking home, sleeveless!
This time around, the waterfall was absolutely crowded with people enjoying the mad weather.
It was a large group, perhaps not surprisingly as it was a free hike, and the weather was top notch amazing.
The landscape was dramatic all around.
Many routes to choose from.
You don’t often find me in a tank top on an evening hike!
Going up mostly in a single file.
The road was quite dug in, and that’s in fact the name of the route: Sporhelludalir is “Footprint-flatrock-valleys” as in many places, the metal-horse-shoes had made grooves into the rock as they traversed in the old days.
Beauty all around.
Interesting rock-features.
Lecture time.
Not a lot of vegetation survives there.
We could see Iceland’s largest lake, Þingvallavatn, in the distance.
Cool rock formations.
Perhaps a useful shelter from the wind?
We kept going up towards the ridge.
Yay for signage!
Sporhelludalir that way.
Another hiking group was just departing this lovely snack-pit-stop as we arrived. Great minds think alike!
Ok fine, I’ll put on a jacket, as we’re not moving right now. This is shortly before 20.
More cool rock formations.
The cars visible in the distance. One must take care not to get too eager and injure oneself during the approach to the cars!
Tired but happy hikers crossing the road to the parking lot.
Saying goodbye about two hours after setting out.
Meanwhile, Finnur had ventured up to the summer house to start sanding and staining/oiling the front entire front side of the house, which was in dire need of it. This was the first of the sanding…
Wednesday 21 May 2025
Spotted a baby-ish spider outside.
Bjarki was all done with school, so waking up around lunchtime was customary.
Walking to the hair salon in a t-shirt.
Newly shorn on the way home.
Yet again, there were a bunch of baby birches in our yard. I sent a photo to someone who might want to harvest them…
I found myself outside again at 21 in the evening, staining more wood.
It wasn’t an exact match, but close enough.
Looking tidier.
Before…
… after.
This photo is from 23:30 when I apparently threw in the staining towel.
One of our trees was blooming, yay!
So many blooms!
Meanwhile, that day, Finnur had been busy scraping and sanding more wood.
Thursday 22 May 2025
The dog at work patiently waiting for his master.
We had a mouse in the house! As Anna was lounging downstairs, a mouse had crawled up on the couch and said hi!?! We tried tracking it down, but somehow, magically it seemed like, it managed to escape somewhere, and hide. Finnur was away (up at the summer house, also cleaning and staining wood), and I decided this was a he-problem to solve when he got back. I was too tired after all the action the previous week.
Up at the summer house, Finnur had managed to prime the newly sanded wood, as the clouds began to roll in.
Friday 23 May 2025
Our perennial flowered, yay! However the overnight wind had played a number on them..
The poor daffodils sad after a windy night.
We all gathered to celebrate the junior-college graduation of one of my in-laws’ grand-children.
Anna hard at work to make macarons for her graduation party. You can see the couch-pillows outside all piled up to try to keep them dry.
A cat came for a visit.
Finnur caught a mouse! He would end up catching a total of three mice I think… They had managed to get into the garage, and from there they made it into the kitchen, we think.
Taking the first caught mouse out for a drive to release it into the wild. The mice explained the cat that had parked itself outside our garage for a few days before…
