“The Tens” @ Reynisfjara, Dyrhólaey & Kvernufoss
[Photos taken 27 July 2025, posted online 11 July 2026. Lots of rain lately, and more on the way, as summer vacation draws near.]
After a couple of fantastic days, it was time to drive back home. We decided to make a long day of it, and stopped by Reynisfjara (on the other side of the ridge by Vík í Mýrdal), before driving over to Dyrhólaey (Door-hill-island) and walking around for a bit. We drove onwards, stopped at Kvernufoss, which is next to Skógafoss, the big waterfall), and then a little ways further for a bite to eat. We attempted to play frisbee disc golf in Hveragerði, but gave up due to too many flies. We arrived back in the city around dinner-time, happy after a lovely trip!
Sunday 27 July 2025
“The Tens” @ Vík í Mýrdal
[Photos taken 25 July 2025, posted online 04 July 2026. Yes, I’m basically a whole year behind myself, but this time around I’m ok with it. Maturity is me? Also, this year’s ladies trip is coming up soon!! ]
Few things are as wonderful as when a group of people organize an activity, invite me along to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and the only expectations are shared costs, a positive demeanor, minimal complaining, and doing the dishes!
Yes, it was time for the third outing of “The Tens”, a group of ten ladies that are connected around a core of teacher-buddies. The destination was Vík í Mýrdal (“The Inlet in Swamp Valley/Mire Dale”), the southern-most village in Iceland. The big hike of the trip was in and around Þakgil (“Roof-canyon”), where I’d e-biked with my e-biking group a few years back. It’s such a pretty area that I was excited to go back.
However, finding affordable accommodation for 10 people, even a silly number of months in advance, was difficult. We ended up renting two apartments, which may have given us a potentially expensive taste for luxury, after staying in cabins the two previous years…
Friday 25 July 2025
Summer House Visits / Stuff Breaks / Bjarki’s 18!!
[Photos taken 22 – 30 June 2026, posted online 30 May 2026. We’ve been busy! Bjarki graduated from junior college this week, a huge milestone!! And Finnur and I just returned from a long weekend in Scotland with my company.]
After long and detailed negotiations, Bjarki got permission to take six of his buddies up to the summer house over a weekend, unsupervised, to celebrate his 18th birthday at the end of June.
Previously, Finnur would have gone up to the house ahead of the group to get everything up and running, but the morning after Anna’s graduation he headed to the airport to spend a week in Germany for work! Thus, it fell to me to take Bjarki and two of his buddies for a daytrip to the summer house to go over their impending arrival and subsequent departure.
The rest of the week was a tale of stuff breaking and getting it fixed: Our charging station gave up the ghost, and so did Emma’s orthodontics. I also met up with a few girlfriends, there was a double 50th birthday party, and an old coworker of Finnur’s from California came for a visit with his gang.
Sunday 22 June 2025
Anna’s B.Sc. Graduation Day
[Photos taken 21 June 2025, posted online 17 May 2026. We’re back to mild weather, perfect for helping build a deck and glass-house at Finnur’s parents’ summer house.]
After three years of studying “biomedical engineering” (heilbrigðisverkfræði) undergrad at Reykjavik University, Anna graduated with a B.Sc, alongside her boyfriend, who completed “energy-engineering“.
She opted for a small family party (aka “the usual suspects”), which still filled our small house, especially since the weather gods decided on “pouring rain”. Thankfully we’d managed to put a small cover over the patio, so that’s where Finnur’s family congregated, while mine took over the living room.
Saturday 21 June 2025
Eruption / Security Conference / Summer Housing
[Photos taken 01 – 07 April 2025, posted online 24 January 2026. Trying to avoid hunkering down into a fetal position as the world news barrage barrages on. January weather keeps being weird, we had two weeks of zero precipitation in freezing temps, and now we’ve lurched into spring time temperatures about two months early.]
Back, in what feels like another world, yet another eruption started a hop and a skip away. It was like the volcano showed up to work for a single 8-hour day only, as the eruption ended the same day.
Finnur was away on a work trip until the Friday, so dinner was my responsibility. Predictably, I dragged out the old classics. My job sent me to attend a local computer security conference, which was mostly fluff, but one really good speaker stood out. My conference stamina keeps being low, with doodling a must.
The summer house got a visit and the shrubs there a trim, before spring hit for real. Then life continued as usual.
Tuesday 01 April 2025
UK: Rochester / Go-Karting / Shopping / Music
[Photos taken 22- 28 February 2025, posted online 21 September 2025. Have painted Anna’s room, and rearranged furniture now that she’s removed a lot of her stuff. Brother commented it looked like a mausoleum!]
We played tourists, and took the train to Rochester to walk around. We usually just go past it on our way to London, but it’s actually got a really nice main/high-street, plus an impressive cathedral and castle-ruins.
The following day we tried to do a bit of shopping, then went go-karting, before going to see my brother Anthony play with his band on jam-night for a bit. On our third day we went to the Bluewater shopping center and really shopped, before flying back to Iceland on the fourth day, sans Finnur who’d diverted to Amsterdam.
The final days of February were otherwise uneventful, as we just waited for the days to get longer…
Saturday 22 February 2025
US Visitors @ Grindavík / Aurora / Departure
[Photos taken 03 – 05 January 2025, posted online 01 August 2025. Been a quiet couple of weeks on vacation, minus a weekend trip to Vík with a group of lovely ladies.]
We recruited good friends into guiding us around the western part of the Reykjanes peninsula. The first stop was the mostly deserted town of Grindavík, then we went to look at some interesting coastline features, followed by walking to a hot spring area, before enjoying some wonderful refreshments at their home.
Their last whole day we went to Flyover Iceland, did a bit of shopping, lit some leftover-fireworks, and then went aurora-hunting again. Their last day was more shopping, before heading to the airport. We were sad to see them go, but should see them again soon, as there’s a full solar eclipse in Iceland on 12 August 2026, and they’ve already reserved beds with us!
Friday 03 January 2025
New Eruption / Elly@Theater / Brass Orchestra Concert
[Photos taken 21 – 30 November 2024, posted online 30 March 2025. It’s confusing blogging so far backwards, just last night I forgot it was already 2025 after writing 2024 one too many times earlier that day!]
On 20 November 2024, the seventh eruption in the Reykjanes-Sundhnúka-volcanic-eruption-series began at 23:14 UTC (which is local time). The morning after I got a few photos of the plume.
That same day I had tickets to the theater, and then life just stumbled onwards in flashes of the same as usual. Christmas shopping loomed large in my mind as Black Friday/Cyber Monday arrived, but I managed to keep going to the gym. I finished the month of November at a brass orchestra concert, and by voting for a new government.
Thursday 21 November 2024
Knitting Headbands / Wardrobe Updated / Gymming
[Photos taken 11 – 20 November 2024, posted online 30 March 2025. There was a partial solar eclipse this morning!]
There were forest walks and hanging out at one of the universities, shuttling kids, a new monitor that surprisingly had opinions, repeated starts of a second headband, impromptu dinner with a friend, a long-ago organized lunch with Finnur’s family, gym attendance, finally finished updating the wardrobe situation for our linens, paid attention to Emma’s hair-styling adventures, and attended a sewing club.
Monday 11 November 2024
Downtown Brunch / Stina Concert / Halloween
[Photos taken 26 – 31 October 2024, posted online 19 February 2025. I’m still sick, spent most of yesterday horizontal, and there is very little braining going on.]
We had a gift-card for brunch for two from Christmas, and managed to get some friends to join us downtown. Afterwards we perused the Kolaportid market.
I helped install yet another laundry system, tried to solve a drawer-ful design-riddle, did some nature-bathing by walking among trees, there was a lovely sewing club, and I attended the release party of my old classmate Stína,
Then, all of a sudden, it was Halloween!
Saturday 26 October 2024
