Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Heatwave in May / Annual Ball / Wood Chips Galore

2025-05-13Friends, Us, Weather Standard

[Photos taken 13 – 19 May 2025, posted online ~~21 March~~ 06 April 2026. Winter has actually arrived, spring equinox brought with it a blizzard! Since starting to write this post we’ve spent a week in the UK (!), and returned to Iceland, to yet another incoming storm.]

In May, when the weather is usually both gorgeous and absolutely freezing cold due to artic winds, Iceland was the happy recipient of a highly unusual heatwave.

The southwestern corner got broiled (by local standards) for multiple days, as very warm air came at us from southern lands. It coincided with my company’s annual ball, the Eurovision song contest, and made for very enjoyable gardening, even if the tasks were quite brutal on the hands.

Tuesday 13 May 2025

The weather was so good that I decided to bike to and from work. It only takes a few minutes longer than driving. The bike-path winds alongside a lush valley, and to my utter surprise on the way home I stumbled upon kids playing IN the water by the waterfall, jumping off the ledge! That water is not warm!

Weeding Day 1 / Búrfellsgjá Hike

2025-05-10Friends, Hiking, Us Standard

[Photos taken 10 – 11 May 2025, posted online 01 March 2026. Currently celebrating my birthday from Munich Airport, en route home.]

Anna wanted to have her university graduation at home, so I was inspired to make the backyard a bit tidier. The first issue was that the grass had crawled over a pebble-filled separator-area to the garden edges, making it impossible to mow properly.

The day after, we went on a hike I’ve wanted to do in daylight for a long time!

Saturday 10 May 2025

Trying to keep the grass from going too close to the big rocks.

Leaves Appear / New Bridges Unlocked / Yard-Work

2025-05-01Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 09 May 2025, posted online 28 February 2026. Sitting at a cafe in Munich, Germany!]

The month started with a sewing-club, then it was more tasks in the backyard, some knitting happened, we attended a birthday party, I took a walk by the music school, and attempted to clean the shower drain.

All in all a relatively low-key start to the month, which was a nice change to the usual madness.

Thursday 01 May 2025

The evening’s sewing-club host owns a proper paella pan, and knows how to use it!

Frame-Staining / Confirmation / Spring-y Choir

2025-04-22Confirmation, Friends, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 22 April 2025, posted online 8 14 February 2026. Still no precipitation, but it’s freezing cold outside. Brrrr…]

With Easter holiday all done and dusted, it was time for more spring tasks, as the sun kept staying up in the sky for longer and longer.

There were walks, some biking, gymming, a confirmation party, and a lot of wood-staining. I attended a spring-y choral performance, and we went out to dinner with friends.

Tuesday 22 April 2025

The priming and staining of the veggie-box-tops continued. Here are 2 out of the 4, all set up to be stripped of staples and acrylic fabric by helping hands.

Easter Break: Summer House / Feasting / Yard Work

2025-04-17Easter, Finnur's family, Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 17 – 21 April 2025, posted online 07 February 2026. The multi-week draught got temporarily halted yesterday when we finally had a bit of rain, which promptly froze on the freezing ground, and had people slipping all over. The weather systems have been locked in a strange configuration for a while, and the UK and mainland Europe have been getting all the tumultuous weather that usually hammers Iceland in winter…]

The five-day Easter holiday weekend went by in a blur of activity! After an epic printer-battle, we went up to the summer house with some friends, and used the lovely weather to put the trampoline together again, in between lounging and playing games.

Easter day was by-the-book, with easter-egg hunts galore, good food, good company, and social whist. The second day of Easter was spent in the yard, as spring was very much in the air!

Thursday 17 April 2025

Driving to the summer house as the five-day-long Easter weekend began.

HP Confirmation Party / Swedes Leave / Lake Walk-Jog

2025-04-13Confirmation, Hrefna's family Standard

[Photos taken 13 – 16 April 2025, posted online 01 February 2026. At this rate I’ll soon end up a whole year “behind” myself…]

We had the pleasure of attending my niece’s Harry Potter themed confirmation party on a lovely afternoon. The Swedes returned to their home a couple of days later, and then it was just “waiting for easter holiday”-time!

Sunday 13 April 2025

The location of the confirmation party, it the community “hall” of the nearby Free Church (Fríkirkjan).

On a Red Light Show/ The Swedes / Family Time

2025-04-08Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 08 – 12 April 2025, posted online 31 January 2026. Still almost no precipitation on our shores, while the UK is getting drenched.]

The Swedish contingent arrived for an Easter visit, which was fun for us! I was cultural and went to a show (of the one-woman-kind), and almost peed my pants laughing. Us, the siblings, managed to book ourselves and mom for a lunch, and the weather kept oscillating between spring and winter.

Tuesday 08 April 2025

The National Theater in downtown Reykjavik, where I spent the evening.

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!