An Evening Visit to Miðdalur

[Written 25 August 2013]

My engineer/lawyer-sewing club (as opposed to the Ex-CA-living club) headed out to an impromptu camping trip the same weekend we were at Laugarvatn, and it so happened that they were a 15 minute drive away from us, in Miðdalur (Middle-valley).

Once we’d settled in and had dinner, we therefore drove on over and enjoyed a few hours in the beautiful outdoors with excellent company.

The campers (and one drive-in family from the city area) having their own dinner.

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Painting in the Sun

[Written 15 August 2013]

We very much love our house and garden, but they come with a penalty: there’s a lot of wood that needs staining, preferably ever year or every other year.

Last year we were staining some part of the wood-work pretty much throughout the summer, but this summer has been wet, wet, wet, so we were already well into July before the weather got dry enough that we could finally get some outside work done.

Now, we heard from a friend that the staining oil/paint is really quite toxic, so Finnur took it upon himself to be The Stainer (while I remained The Breastfeeder).  Which meant that poor Finnur spent all the sunshine days staining all the doors and windows on the lower floor and balcony.  And we totally forgot to take a single photo of him doing it!

Towards the end of the week, Finnur reminded me that we’d always meant to fix the mess we made on the house walls while staining the balcony last year, and since this job required normal house paint, I volunteered.

Come Friday, Finnur’s parents were kind enough to take the older kids with them to their summer house by Laugarvatn , giving us 24 hours of pretending to only have one kid before we followed them there.  (And boy is having one kid a walk in the park easy!) 🙂

We used the opportunity to get Indian take-away (which the kids frown upon) and to paint.  Yes, very exciting.

Last year, when we stained the balcony floor, we neglected to cover the walls of the house itself. As a result, the white-ish walls were covered in ugly brown streaks, which needed to be painted over.

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Bjarki’s Turn at Horse Riding School

[Written 15 August 2013]

For our second ‘summer vacation’ week we signed Bjarki up for the same horse riding school as Anna had attended.  This was the last week the school operated this summer, and Bjarki’s group consisted of only four kids!  (Apparently attendance drops off in July because people go ‘elsewhere’ for their vacation.  Each group usually has 10 kids.)

Bjarki on Stormur.

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Vegetable Experiments

[Written 11 August 2013]

We tried to grow some vegetables this summer in the garden, most notably carrots and radishes.  We tried both sowing first inside and then moving the plants outside, as well as just sowing seeds outside.  Here’s what’s happened so far:

This particular pot has parsley on the far end, which started out in small pots inside, and was moved outside sometime in June. It never managed to get any bigger though.  I neglected to sow any outside. The plants around the middle could be weeds, or they could be flowers I sowed back in June.  I’m waiting to see if they bloom before I’ll know for sure.

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The Really Nice Weather Arrives (Finally!)

[Written 10 August 2013]

This day marked the first in a string of really really nice weather days.  Anna made cupcakes, and two of my brothers (Pétur and Bjarni) came by to hang out in the hot tub.  First though I had to get the patio chairs up and running, and look what I found on one of the armrests…

Hello nest of tiny spiders! Yes, I finally opened up the patio chairs (that have been stacked up against a wall during this wet and miserable summer) and look what I found. I asked Finnur to get rid of them and he relocated them to some other part of the yard. I found another nest that was unhatched, and threw that one in the trash.

The kids put down blankets on the deck and brought out some toys, and Emma.  The cleaned patio chairs were used to create shade.

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Quiet Monday

[Written 10 August 2013] The Monday of Week Two of this year’s Summer Vacation was a quiet one.  In the morning we drove Bjarki to the horse riding school, because we’d gotten permission to sign him up for their last week of operation this summer, even though he’s a year under their usual starting age.Read more

Table Straightening

[Written 9 August 2013]

Our expandable kitchen table has been shaped like a U for a long time, sagging more and more in the middle with every elbow push.

We’d been meaning to fix it for a long time, but nothing happened until Holla and Óli showed up for brunch one Saturday morning.  It must be because Holla and Óli are masters of doing stuff, and Óli in particular has done a lot of wood-work over the past few years.  It’s not just that we’re so laaazy that slugs fall asleep on us… 🙂

Anyway.  Finnur and Óli took some measurements, and then headed out to the lumber yard and got some timber.

Óli by the up-side-down table.

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Húsafell Departure

[Written 9 August 2013]

We needed to leave our lovely Húsafell abode by 12 noon on the Friday, after a whole week of loveliness.  The adults therefore got up early, and started packing and cleaning, while the kids were told to go play on the jumping mat.  I was rather comatose after a few too many nights of interrupted sleep, so I managed to pack our stuff, and mind Emma, but that was about it.  Oh, and take a few pictures.

Finnur packing our foodstuffs.

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Húsafell: Horses at Giljar

[Written 8 August 2013]

On our last full day at Húsafell, we took the kids ‘over the hill’ to a horse rental at Giljar.

Anna and Arnar went first.

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Húsafell: Chocolate Cake Day

[Written 8 August 2013] After a busy day, we had a quiet day.  Halli made a chocolate cake for tea-time, yum! 🙂  Read more