Faxi Campsite / Flúðir Folf / Finnur’s 50th
[Photos taken 25 – 31 July 2024, posted online 14 October 2024. It’s chilly but beautiful out there.]
One day, Emma noted that she’d never slept in a tent, and we decided that was something we should probably fix. A few days later, we lucked out in getting invited to join some friends at a campsite by the waterfall Faxi.
We arrived just as the most recent rain-storm was passing, stayed for a couple of nights, and managed to pack up the tent just before the next rain-storm arrived. We tried Frisbee golfing (folfing) for the first time, and it was a resounding success for all.
We returned home in the rain, caught out breaths for a few moments before attending a multi-Christening/Confirmation, and then it was Finnur’s 50th birthday!
Thursday 25 July 2024
Grábrók & Glanni @ Norðurá / Wacky Weather
[Photos taken 21 – 24 July 2024, posted online 11 October 2024. A busload of Italians has invaded the coffee house again!]
I was in a hiking mood, so I contacted a couple of lady-friends who I knew were staying close to our summer house, and they kindly let me join them for a day out and about. We fed them dinner in return!
Then the weather turned windy and rainy, so we mostly just hunkered indoors for a few days, but did make it out to fancy dinner with friends.
Sunday 21 July 2024
Pruning Dead Branches / Driver Progress / New TV
[Photos taken 15 – 20 July 2024, posted online 10 October 2024. This morning we woke up to snow on the ground for the first time this season.]
Nice weather followed the abysmal weather, as it usually does. I decided it was high time to go prune all the dead branches from the hedge by our house, of which there were many. This task ended up taking multiple days, especially as the weather refused to settle, and kept swinging between extremes.
Bjarki’s e-sport camp summer job came to a close, as he only has a set number of weeks he could work via the town’s “work school” program. He therefore had all the time in the world to keep working on getting his driver’s license, which he did, finishing driving school #3, and his written exam.
I kept gymming, and slowly started attending actual gym-classes after my bad back-sprain at the end of May. Aside from all the occupational therapy inherent in cutting dead branches, I also did a stint of ironing for mom. I found it to be mind-numbingly boring, but the results were good, so I figured that was more important. Last but not least, I purchased a new TV for the living room, as our old one had gotten the thumbs down from Anna’s friends, and Finnur held an impromptu tire-changing lesson.
Monday 15 July 2024
Lovely Weekend / Gardening / New Sofa
[Photos taken 06 – 11 July 2024, posted online 06 October 2024. Still in gorgeous fall weather, but under siege by the accompanying viruses.]
We spent a lovely weekend in the summer house with friends, in amazing weather (it’s very much a lottery). Unfortunately, I was fighting some bug, so I slept for a lot of it…!
Back in town, I finally felt up to some gardening. I did my physio exercises, and hunted down a new sofa, before prepping for a weekend away with 9 other ladies.
Saturday 06 July 2024
Nick Cave & Colin Greenwood / Sewing Club Happy Hour
[Photos taken 02 – 05 July 2024, posted online 04 October 2024. Nights are getting frosty, I’m still very unemployed, but nowhere near out of projects at home.]
Back in April, tickets to a July-show in Harpa with Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood (Radiohead‘s bassist) went on sale. I’ve long been curious about Nick Cave, and having seen the other Greenwood brother in Brussels in March, I couldn’t pass this up. (Also, big cheers for performers deciding to vacation in Iceland, and giving us mere mortals a chance to see them in action!)
When it came time to get tickets however, I got a lousy place in the online-line, and when it was my turn, there were no two-seats available!! However there was a single seat available in a fairly good spot, so I jumped on that.
A little later in the day, the organizers announced a second concert had been added. That one went on sale the morning after. After 15 minutes, that one was also sold out, and a third concert had been instantly added, with the note that there would absolutely not be any more shows! Fittingly, the third show also sold out in a few minutes! I guess Nick Cave’s fanbase in Iceland is big and ravenous!!
The remainder of the week was spent driving Emma to and from a distant camp, saying goodbye to our old sofa-bed, going out to happy hour and dinner with the sewing club (still not sewing anything), finally finishing the veggie-box lidded-enclosures, gymming, and then heading to the summer house, arriving just in time to see a spectacular sunset.
Tuesday 02 July 2024
Projects Galore / Bjarki’s 17th Birthday
[Photos taken 23 – 30 June 2024, posted online 25 September 2024. The mornings are getting quite chilly!]
Following a quick summer house chill, it was time to get to work on mom’s new apartment, while she was away in Sweden.
In between bursts of activity on that front, I kept building the veggie-box enclosures, although at that point it was clear they wouldn’t really be useful until the following summer. Oh well.
Aside from working on projects, I had a game-night, met a friend for lunch, finally met up with my physio for some solid guidance on fixing my back (use those glutes!), Emma started a new camp, and Bjarki turned a whopping 17 years old!!
Sunday 23 June 2024
Apartment Clearance / Jacob Collier / Hvammsvík / Woodworking
[Photos taken 15 – 22 June 2024, posted online 24 September 2024. Fall colors are everywhere.]
With mom in good hands in Sweden, it was time to finish the big mom-move, as in fully clear and clean the old apartment. It was a good thing I was out of a job, as I needed a few days to recover after each session.
There were a few big events, such as a Jacob Collier concert, visiting the Hvammsvík hot springs, an MBA graduation, and Stanford alumni get-together.
As we were feeling pretty happy with the prototype veggie-box enclosure Anna and I had designed and built, we got Finnur to source more wood, and then I used dry days to build more.
In between it all, I tried to visit the gym on weekdays, and slowly nudge myself back to health.
Saturday 15 June 2024
Garden Build / Goodbye Controlant / Hello Back Sprain
[Photos taken 20 – 31 May 2024, posted online 11 September 2024. Bjarki sprained his shoulder at parkour practice yesterday, we spent a lovely few hours at the ER to get a diagnosis.]
In a fit of activity, I dismantled the old veggie-box lids Finnur assembled a few years ago, that had sadly collapsed. Anna wanted a more accessible design, so we we went about designing, and building version two of the veggie-box lids.
In that spirit, I spent the last week at Controlant burning through a lot of energy, to finish what I’d decided I should finish. This was mostly fueled by eating ridiculous amounts of 85% dark chocolate.
After my last day, energy was still running high, one could even say there was a bit of a disconnect between body and mind, which promptly translated into lifting too much at the gym, spraining my back. In retrospect it was good that I essentially got sent into mandatory rest, I might have crashed and burned even worse if I hadn’t. Oh, and there was yet another eruption, and we secured a new home for mom!
Second Whit Sunday (Public Holiday) – Monday 20 May 2024
Spring Tasks / Concerts / Work-Wind-Down
[Photos taken 01 – 19 May 2024, posted online 10 September 2024. I have sent in my first job application in since I quit my job in the spring, as I finally stumbled upon a job posting that spoke to me.]
After the weirdly high number of trips abroad in March and April, there was finally a bit of peace and quiet to start on “spring tasks”. Branches got trimmed, planks were screwed, music was listened to.
I also struggled with how long I would stay on at my job, as my brain toggled between “really need a break” and “really want to finish these tasks”. As the month passed, my stress levels increased (quitting is hard!), and I tried to compensate by going to the gym, which helped a bit.
Finnur had a lot of errands to do at the summer house (new fire-place!), before departing for California on a work-trip, so I ended up cooking a lot more dinners than usual. We also started apartment hunting for mom, as her old apartment was no longer a good fit.
Labor Day – Wednesday 01 May 2024
Confirmation / New Bed / Office Move
[Photos taken 13 – 24 April 2024, posted online 25 August 2024. Last night, we drove past the active volcano that erupted this past Thursday, as we had dinner with friends that live close by. Was cool, erm, fiery!]
The second confirmation party of this season was lovely. (We had invites for three others, but were traveling for all of them!?!). I took a few photos of the newly-confirmed-one before the party started, which is always so much fun.
The following days were busy with Emma finally getting a bigger bed, some spring cleaning, haircuts, moving offices at work, and goodbye events, although I still had a good month to go at work.
Saturday 13 April 2024
