Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Eruption / Security Conference / Summer Housing

2025-04-01Uncategorized Standard

[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

Watching the short-lived eruption, along with the data from the fiber optic cable along the coastline a little ways away.

Spring Weather / Partial Solar-Eclipse / Gatherings

2025-03-26Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 26 – 31 March 2025, posted online 27 December 2025. Rarely have I fallen this far behind, but oh well.]

Life as usual reasserted itself with alarming speed after we returned from Tenerife! We were of course greeted with plenty of rain, but the week also included hail, snow, and dryness. Typical spring!

Anna fought with computing equipment and kept her young summer plants alive, Emma and I went on an outing, there were at least four gatherings with people (sewing club, friend dinner, cousin-meetup, ex-coworker dinner), a partial solar-eclipse, and gym-sessions!

Wednesday 26 March 2025

Tenerife South-ish Walk / Back to Iceland

2025-03-24Friends, Tenerife Standard

[Photos taken 24-25 March 2025, posted online 23 27 December 2025. The weather is unseasonably wet and warm, hanging out at 9C/48F. Big rainy-wind-storms have battered us over the Christmas celebration, but zero snow.]

On our third and final full day in Tenerife, we ambled southwards, again utilizing the very handy mobility scooter as needed for those who needed it. The south-side felt less hilly than the northern one.

The following day we flew back to Iceland, which was probably good timing as the Bali-bed reservations were getting very competitive, and I only scored one on our last morning!

Monday 24 March 2025

A toes-y photo from Tenerife. Such photos were infamously blamed for holding up inflation in Iceland!

Tenerife Bali-Bed Chillin’ / Visiting La Caleta

2025-03-22Friends, Tenerife, Us Standard

[Photos taken 22 – 23 March 2025, posted online 22 December 2025. My Christmas present to myself is a two week vacation over the holidays, yay!]

Seemingly having lost the ability to sleep in, I woke up bright and early on our mornings in Tenerife, hauled myself out of bed, and attempted to claim three Bali-beds in the fancy balcony-section. Then it was on to breakfast, followed by some serious lounging!

The first full day was pretty quiet, but on the second full day we acquired a mobility scooter, and went adventuring. We had a lot of fun walking northwards to La Caleta, and then I decided to jog back, which went well most of the way until my Achilles tendon suddenly had enough.

Saturday 22 March 2025

Success! Three bali-beds reserved via towels!

Arrival in Tenerife – Dream’s Jardin Edition

2025-03-21Friends, Tenerife Standard

[Photos taken 21 March 2025, posted online 13 14 December 2025. This has been a week of massive rain and intermittent high winds, but right now it’s snowing which is brightening up the air as we endure the last week of shrinking daylight for a while.]

We decided to tag along with good friends, yet again, to visit Tenerife for a few days. With Finnur having a busy work-travel schedule ahead, we didn’t stay for very long. It was just us and two other couples, much like two years prior.

Friday 21 March 2025

The ‘inside yard’ of our hotel in Tenerife, the “Dreams Jardín Tropical Resort & Spa“. This is my favorite Tenerife hotel out of the three I’ve tried.

Spring Tasks /

2025-03-16Friends, Hiking, Us Standard

[Photos taken 16 – 20 March 2025, posted online ~~08 Novembe~~r 2025. Snow still lingers after the biggest ever October snowfall in the capital on 28 October. I measured 40 cm /16 inches in our backyard. 07 December 2025. Blog’s taken the metaphorical back seat as life’s been very very busy. Just returned from seeing Radiohead in Copenhagen!]

The temperature reached a convincing 8.5 C / 47 F, and I remembered that the shrubbery needed trimming before they started spring-sprouting.

We went out to dinner with friends, I went on a hike with a new hiking group (that I would miss a lot of hikes with), Emma got a spring-time haircut, and we packed for our upcoming triple-couple-trip to Tenerife!

Sunday 16 March 2025

Confirmation Photos / Sewing Club / Napoleon

2025-03-09Confirmation, Hrefna's family, Uppskriftir, Us Standard

[Photos taken 09 – 15 March 2025, posted online 26 October 2025. First snow of the winter season fell overnight, not nearly enough to cover up the grass, but the nights have been cold enough that it’s sticking around.]

This year’s confirmation season was relatively quiet, with only one cousin ascending to the halls of “being counted as an adult” (the wording is probably from when kids were big enough to participate fully in farm-work?). I was happy to take photos of the confirmed-one-to-be, although yet again I swore to one day really update my gear, so I don’t have to fight the lighting quite so much.

That same weekend, Bjarki and two buddies scored the third place in a programming competition, and each got $80/EUR70/ISK10000 for their hard work. The rest of the week saw warmer weather, a haircut, a swim, a ladies lunch, I hosted a sewing club, and we went on an outing to a theatrical production paired with wine.

Lastly, be warned that at the very bottom of the page are a couple of photos of a burst ganglion cyst…

Sunday 09 March 2025

Birthdays / Flowers / More Daylight

2025-03-01Birthday, Finnur's family, Hrefna's family, Knitting, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 08 March 2025, posted online 25 October 2025. Overnight frost has arrived, and thus bird-feeding has resumed.]

March is a birthday bonanza month. This time around I turned 48 years old, so I just have a couple of years to go until the big five-oh! We also belatedly formally celebrated Emma’s 12 year birthday, and mostly totally ignored our 25th wedding anniversary.

This first week of March was a mix of things, there was creme-puff-day, costumes for Ash Wednesday (now Halloween #2), an uncomfortable finger-ganglion cyst (mild yuk-photo warning), gym-sessions, and very suddenly a lot more daylight, but the frost held on.

Saturday 01 March 2025

Yours truly, somewhat awkwardly holding birthday flowers.

UK: Rochester / Go-Karting / Shopping / Music

2025-02-22Uncategorized Standard

[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

The kids posing with Rochester Castle in the background.

12th Birthday / Increased Daylight / UK Winter Break

2025-02-12Birthday, Hrefna's family, UK, Us Standard

[Photos taken 12 – 21 February 2025, posted online 13 September 2025. It’s bright but windy day, the leaves have begun turning although the air temperature has been unseasonably high.]

Emma’s 12 birthday finally arrived, much to her joy! We had a mini celebration at home on the day, and she invited a few friends over a few days later. Further celebrations had to wait as a) I got sick and, b) we were headed to the UK for a school winter-break visit.

In the meantime, the days kept getting longer with the sun higher in the sky, which meant taking down yule-lights, and cleaning windows.