New Year’s Eve / Party / Bonfire / Aurora / Fireworks
[Photos taken 31 December 2024 (into 01 January 2025), posted online 14 June 2025. We’re getting more really nice weather, it’s like a “summer”??]
New Year’s Eve is always a fun day. The day began with Anna making yet another batch of the ever popular “horns” for the potluck-party that evening. It’s a “newish” twist on tradition that Finnur’s sister now invites the family to celebrate the new year, and we got permission to invite our US visitors along.
Earlier that day I managed to convince two hyperactive souls to join me for some frisbee golf in the baby-sized forest up the hill (Guðmundarlundur). By the forest we ran into a lost shivering cold dog, which we pulled into our car. The magical powers of Facebook (advertising lost animals is about the only thing it’s actually good for) had the dog reunited with its owner in half an hour.
Our US visitors were very keen to see the northern lights, and had been following the expected conditions. The forecast for the evening was excellent, following a solar storm ejection two days prior, so they planned on driving out while the Icelandic “annual comedy hour” was in progress to go hunting for lights.
At the last minute, I decided to join them as a guide in the hunt so they didn’t get hopelessly lost, or drive too far afield to make it back for the insane fireworks at midnight. Let’s just say that we got very lucky in the aurora deparatment!
Happy 2025 Everybody!!
Tuesday 31 December 2024
US Visitors @ Summer House / Games / Fireworks
[Photos taken 27 – 30 December 2024, posted online 07 June 2025. We’re on the other side of a stormy few days, and the nights have been cold. Some plants sustained damage, but most doing ok.]
We decided to move everybody up to the “summer house”, as we’d have more actual beds there for our US visitors. The conditions were mild enough for the “middle”-big car to make it up to the house.
As luck would have it, we discovered upon arrival that our “big” electric car was refusing to charge, which put a serious damper on any sight-seeing plans as the car had just enough charge to get back to town. In case it was just a case of cold, we got permission to park it inside a nearby barn to thaw overnight, but no luck.
After marathon game-sessions, and a snowball-y walk to the lake and back, we drove back to town a day early. That meant we could go watch the nearby “official” search-and-rescue squad fireworks show nearby. Our visitors then spent a day visiting museums, while the rest of us rested!
Friday 27 December 2024
Christmas Eve+Day+2nd Day / Anna’s 21st Birthday / US Visitors!
[Photos taken 24 – 26 December 2024, posted online 01 June 2025. Pouring rain today, and strong chilly winds predicted tomorrow after the absolute beauty of a May weatherwise. All the plants are fully green (way ahead of schedule), and here’s hoping they survive the next few days…]
Christmas Eve passed in a traditional manner… Finnur was in charge of the kitchen, while Emma and I went on a hike up to the overlook point, and mostly everybody stayed out of Finnur’s way.
Similarly, Christmas Day was as tradition dictates with Anna’s 21st birthday, her making “horns” and desserts for Finnur’s family gathering at his parents’ place, us going there, eating and playing the social-whist tournament (I won!!) before preparing for visitors at home.
The second day of Christmas (aka Boxing Day in the UK) saw our US visitors arrive bright and early. They got to sleep for a few hours, and then they got dragged to the outdoors swimming pool/hot-tub/slide-extravaganza up the hill. The five of us went to a lovely late-afternoon family-gathering on my side, before spending the evening playing games, and then some more games!
Christmas Eve – Tuesday 24 December 2024
Winter Arrival Prep / Forest Walks / Solo UK Trip
[Photos taken 01 – 07 November 2024, posted online 09 March 2025. Bright sunny-but-chilly weather outside. The days have gotten longer, it’s now bright outside when we leave the house in the mornings, and well past dinnertime. ]
It started getting chilly in November, which meant feeding the wild birds.
There were two birthday parties in one weekend, that week I gymmed, gamed, and walked in the forest a lot, also knitted a headband, gave a car some love, before getting on an airplane to London on a Thursday, to see a show there the following evening.
Friday 01 November 2024
Functional Fireplace / Hvanneyri Folf / Data Funsies
[Photos taken 19 – 25 October 2024, posted online 18 February 2025. I’ve caught some virus, which has me in a limbo of body is sick/not-very-sick but my brain isn’t really braining. Expect weirdness.]
Finnur’s year-long project to replace the open fireplace at the summer house with an enclosed one, finally got almost completely finished, with the help of some good friends. Before returning to town, we visited the frisbee golf course in nearby Hvanneyri with Emma. It was a good one!
Accepting my friend’s offer to come play in her data-playground, I got busy restarting the coding part of my brain. Turns out the AI Github Copilot is amazeballs.
Saturday 19 October 2024
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
