Ginger Bread House / Yule 2023 / Anna’s 20th Birthday!
[Photos taken 23 – 30 December 2023, posted online 20 June 2024. I now have a 67 year old mom!?!]
This yule went pretty much by the book. No surprises.
We managed to organize ourselves enough to make the annual ginger-bread-house, and some cookies. Then it was on to Christmas itself, which we celebrated on Christmas Eve as is the Icelandic custom, hosting my mom and one of my brothers. We spent Christmas Day at Finnur’s parents’ place, eating and playing social whist. That was also the day that Anna turned 20 years old!
My work gave us the days between Christmas and New Year’s off, so the days were calm and restorative. We ended the week by going with friends to the “summer” house, as the temperatures plunged outside.
Saturday 23 December 2023
Cousin’s Wedding / Shed Floored
[Photos taken 01 – 06 October 2023. Posted online 09 June 2024. The winds have finally calmed down a bit, and the weather is gorgeous. Do we dare plant summer flowers outside? Also, I tore up my sprained-back again on Thursday, while innocently leaning forward to wash my hands, after perhaps doing too much physical stuff earlier that day. Grumble.]
A dear cousin asked me to photograph her wedding on the first day of October, and after giving my usual spiel of “I’m not a professional by any measure, I don’t really do any post-processing, but I’ll do my best” I went to gather my collection of camera-stuff.
I’m still using the (then) 10-year-old Canon 70D as my “big” camera, and I now have three Canon L-lenses (1: 17-40mm f4, 2: 70-200mm f4, and 3: 100 mm f2.8), all of which I used on the day. However, I will admit that the loud shutter-noise in the quiet church had me wishing for a mirrorless camera, but I’ve yet to work up the courage to go there…
The wedding day was wonderful, and left us all with big smiles. Congratulations dear cousin and spouse!
In other news, the garbage bin shed floor/deck was finally finalized, and we could start working on the walls. I tried to keep moving even though my shoulder was in loud-protest-mode, and Bjarki went in for wrist-surgery to remove a ganglion cyst.
Sunday 01 October 2023
Autumn Arrives With Furniture Swap-Around
[Photos taken 01 – 11 Sept 2023, posted online 04 June 2024. Weather warnings all over Iceland this week, with snow in the north, strong winds etc. “June”, you say?]
Autumn arrived with a bang, as high winds pushed sheets of rain under our balcony, soaking the hiding sofa-pillows. I caved and moved the pillows inside, stacking the units left outside for winter.
Finnur’s foot was still quite bad, so the garbage-shed project was put on hold for a bit.
Instead I rearranged furniture. Most notably I dismantled my unloved front-room Covid-home-office, and moved the kid-sized Ikea-desk and chair up to Emma’s room, which resulted in a nasty pile of stuff in the hallway, and a wall in dire need of spackling and paint.
Anna made morale-boosting bagels, there was high-tea and dinner with friends, we had family over at the summer house, and I hung out at the gym.
Friday 01 September 2023
Last Three E-Biking Rides & Regular Life Reboot
[Photos taken 19 – 31 August 2023, posted online 02 June 2024. Iceland has elected a new president! (The Wikipedia article is in flux, but it will hopefully settle down soon). It’s a mostly ceremonial position, the only real power is vetoing legislation, which almost never happens. Thankfully nobody is alleging election fraud and the baton will pass peacefully.]
The guided e-biking group began riding again for the fall. I would manage to go on three rides before an ache in my left shoulder disqualified me for the rest of the season.
Bjarki got his practice driving license, and frequently asked us to go out on drives with him. I tried to remain calm. We all returned to school and work, and I managed to also keep going to the gym.
Small home improvement projects got implemented, and the summer house also got some love and attention. I even managed to read a book outside in the backyard, gasp!
Saturday 19 August 2023
Garbage-Bin-Shed Build Begins
[Photos taken 01 – 05 August 2023, posted online 19 May 2024. Finnur’s off on a work-trip to the mothership in California, while I am four working-days away from being unemployed, by choice.]
The garbage/rubbish sorting system in the capital area underwent a big change in 2023. Most notably everyone was asked to sort out food-leftovers into a separate bin, as well as sort paper and plastic separately (they used to be in the same bin).
In practice this meant that instead of having two large bins, we ended up with three large ones (for homes with little waste, they could ask for two split bins, but we’re not there), and nowhere to put the third bin.
Thus was born the “build a garbage-bin-shed” project, which would last into the first frost and snow, but it was a lot of fun!
Tuesday 01 August 2023
New School Bike Route & Family Moving Prep
[Photos taken 17 – 26 July 2023, posted online 28 April 01 May 2024. Started writing this point in Holland, finished in Iceland.]
We were all formally on summer vacation except Anna, who would be working to the end of July. Thus we took it pretty easy for the most part.
I did start working on one task early on: finding the optimal 4 km bike-route for Bjarki to his new school. We had to take into consideration how easy it was to navigate, how to avoid the worst hill-climbs and busy streets, and stay sheltered as the school is located near the top of a large hill, higher up than we live.
We also helped my brother and family pack up their apartment, as they were moving to Sweden! Then it was prepping for the next big project: The Garbage Bin Shed!
Monday 17 July 2023
Kayaking & Eruption-Monitoring on Vacation Eve
[Photos taken 08 – 13 July 2023, posted online 14 April 2024. Today I want to clear out the garage, ooof.]
We’d gone ahead and bought a couple of kayaks at Costco, and then scratched our heads long and hard on how to transport them to and from the lake. Thankfully we found roof-racks for the big car, and after some more head-scratches, the roof racks were installed, and a YouTube video consulted on how to fasten kayaks on top. We invited the soon-to-be-Swedes to the summer-house for a bit of a farewell, and lucked out with the weather!
We then held our collective breath until yet another volcanic eruption began. It was far away from everywhere, and would last for just under a month.
Finnur remained at the summer house, working remotely during the day, and oiling/staining wood outside of working hours. There’s a lot of wood that needs to be taken care of there… Meanwhile I cooked (once), weeded, gymmed, and prepped for my formal summer vacation!
Saturday 08 July 2023
Mom’s South-Coast Birthday-Trip & Bjarki’s 16th Birthday
[Photos taken 25 – 30 June 2023, posted online 16 March 2024 from Brussels. Yesterday I saw dinosaur fossils, and The Smile (nearing dinosaur-status, but not fossilized, yet).]
We went on an afternoon-trip with mom to celebrate her birthday a few days prior with a fleet of four cars, then attended another university graduation party (we know so many studious kids!). A few days later, we celebrated Bjarki’s 16th birthday, and he took his first driving lesson, thankfully returning unscathed.
Sunday 25 June 2023
Mowing-time, Birthday-time, Biking-time & Ducks!
[Photos taken 10 – 15 June 2023, posted online 14 March 2024, from a cafe in Brussels that has a smoke detector that is almost out of battery. Peep!!]
Upon returning home from California, the grass had grown to time-to-mow-length, there was a birthday, more work to do in the garden, bread-baking, insensibly fed ducks, purchased kayaks, and e-biking along the rocky coast.
Saturday 10 June 2023
Confirmation Season Continues
[Photos taken 01 – 08 April 2023, posted online 16 21 December 2023. The start of this blog post was written in a cafe in Dublin, Ireland!]
The confirmation season continued in full swing, as Easter vacation began. We attended two confirmation parties,
Saturday 01 April 2023
