Lady-Living / Hiking The-Other-Skálafell / Concrete Surveillance
[Photos taken 13 – 20 September 2024, posted online 13 December 2024. Warm weather has washed all ice and snow away, so today it’s just cold and dark. Only 8 days until the days start getting longer...]
One of the sewing club members kindly invited us all for a sleep-over at her estate, a hop and a skip outside the capital area. The afternoon-weather was gorgeous (it turned miserable the following day) and we had a lovely time, managing to celebrate a birthday.
Two days later day I joined another group of ladies to hike up a mini-mount (Skálafell á Hellisheiði). That week Emma got a plan to align her teeth, I met old coworkers for dinner, checked out the massive construction going on by the music school, and the small scale fiber-optic-laying-stuff by our house.
Friday 13 September 2024
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
Ten Lovely Ladies @ Hveradalir & Gullfoss
[Photos taken 14 July 2024, posted online 09 October 2024. It’s pretty out there.]
Our stay at Gíslaskáli (Gísli’s cabin) came to an end as the storm had finally passed. We decided to drive up to Hveradalir (“Fumarole-valleys” or “Geothermal-valleys”), where we’d attempted to hike to the day before.
On the way there we passed by the pretty Gýgjarfoss waterfalls (two rivers merging into one), passed the Highland Base area, and lots of pretty vistas, before finally oooh-ing and awww-ing over the Hveradalir area. It really is quite beautiful.
We then drove back to civilization, again getting thoroughly shaken on the long unpaved road back to paved asphalt. We stopped at the visitor’s center by Gullfoss (“Golden waterfall”) where a husband awaited us, to whisk his wife and another traveler off to a new adventure. We then drove back to the capital area, all quite happy with how things turned out.
Sunday 14 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
Moving Mom / Physio Gymming
[Photos taken 01 – 14 June 2024, posted online 20 September 2024. One job interview completed this week, just got notified I’d made it to round two, but lots of unemployed fish in the sea.]
June kicked off with a presidential election in Iceland, and for the second time ever a woman, Halla Tómasdóttir, was elected. The position is mostly ceremonial, with lots of meets and greets, but holds (very-rarely-used) veto power over new laws.
Then it was prepping stuff, followed by moving it, to mom’s new abode, interspersed with a few “adulting” tasks around the house like cleaning the garbage bins, and taking care of a leaky car tire.
My sprained back kept being fragile, such as when I re-injured myself bending down slightly to wash my hands. I was therefore banned from carrying stuff, and instead reverted to my old physio exercises to claw my way back to good back health.
We leaned hard on the kindness of friends to feed us, which kept us in good spirits.
Saturday 01 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
Emma’s 11th Birthday / Summer House / Krauma
[Photos taken 11 – 28 February 2024, posted online 03 July 2024. The rain keeps raining, but at least the weather is mostly mild.]
Emma’s actual 11th birthday was on a Monday, so we had a small family party the day before. So many people were away that we combined both families into one party, which hasn’t happened in a long time. The celebrations continued with a dinner at a restaurant, and then a classroom party at an ice-rink.
We visited the summer house repeatedly, and in one such journey I ended up being sent to Krauma with a girlfriend to relax, as it was “women’s day”.
The days got longer, and the outside temperature started swinging wildly, as thaws and frost battled for dominance.
Sunday 11 February 2024
