Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller

The weather is dismal again. It is amazing what an effect this has on your life. I spent the bulk of the day reading a book and on occasion walking the dog. Now I am watching some cheesy movie on the tv...

So much for doing heaps this weekend - like cleaning up for my impending visitors next week..

Had I written about this?

My best mates from pre Iceland are coming to visit, Bernd, Amanda and son Matthias from Germany, Narelle from Aus and Amanda's mum and dad and great aunt from Aus. So it should be a great time. Hopefully I will have some time off work to be a proper host, if not Amanda, Narelle and Bernd have been here often enough to be able to take over the tour guide role for me.

The government ratified the Icesave agreement today, putting the country into debt for the next God knows how many years. I may be naive but I always thought that when folk were putting their money in private hands that they were taking a risk that might mean they never see their money again, I also thought that when a business becomes bankrupt that normal laws would be followed and that the general public would not be made accountable and payable. Still, it seems that the big bullies in the EU have got their way.

Did not mean to be so depressing... blame it on the weather.

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not. ~James Joyce

I just wanted to call attention to the really nice blog post Olga did about mum. It´s her 82nd birthday today - and I forgot ofcourse - until she told me that my sister and aunt had both called her this morning....

In other news, my nephew Maggi had the big family dinner bash today - we had lovely chicken breasts with sundried tomato cream cheese filling wrapped in bacon, very nice. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better, I tell you people were going mad (literally) with the rain and crappy weather that we have been having recently. This meant that ma could go berry picking both yesterday and today. She is now on her way to Rvk for a few medical appointments (eye doc and accupuncture). Am ofcourse going to miss her dearly -but Freyja is probably going to miss her more.

It's that time of year again

Yep that's right it's berry time, the blue berries as you can see are only just turning blue so it is still very early on in the season, but this does not stop my mother - berry queen picker. It doesn't matter how bad her back is or how tired she is she always takes every opportunity to go berry picking. So after a rather "heavy" Friday night, she got me to take her at 2pm on the Saturday - twas probably the best thing for me.

Mum in her berry picking outfit - she lies amid the growth and picks and picks and picks....

Freyja and I meanwhile wonder around and look perplexed. I did also try and pick some but Freyja was intent on surveying the surroundings. I couldn't let her run free as we were just above the paddocks where horses were grazing and I wasn't in the mood for chasing her around and then exlpaining myself to angry horse owners.

She found this most unjust! Then in the evening it was food from the middle ages. Saturday was a day for Sturlunga. Sturlunga is a saga which documents one of the bloodiest fueds in Icelands history, and it took place here in Skagafjordur. At the moment there is a group active in the fjord promoting the different areas where the different battles took place and making the saga a living thing... Cultural / historical tourism at it's best. I hadn't taken part in any of the days activities I just went to the dinner that was held in the evening - with the bestest of people.. family and friends anywho, the menu was to be based around food that the folk of the time would have had available to them, a part of the evening's entertainment was the band Voces Thules - they were brilliant.

Also a writer Einar Kárason (the head on the left) said a few words as well as a few other local identities. Now to the important bits -- the food:

Entré dried fish, salt fish mush on rye bread, smoked beef tongue, lamb pate and flat bread.

Main - Icelandic lamb soup... had quite a bit of pepper and I didn't find any lamb but did get lots and lots of bláberg which I think is wild thyme.

More mains, lots of barley type things, honey and almond arctic charr, wild salads, turnip mash and for those that like the pig, they had an apparently really good crackling...

I forgot to take a picture of dessert, but it was skyr (Icelandic cheesy joghurt thing) served with blue berries (but apparently very sour - sugar was not readily available in the year 1200 you know) ábristir (spelling probably wrong), which is the first milk from a cow after she has calved. You heat it in a bowl over boiling water - becomes sort of custardy, I love it - but not many of my friends do... then there was mountain grass milk.... which is apparently very good for you - need I say more.

Twas a good night, I learnt a little about the saga and feel that now I really should try and read the damn thing....

Friday night.. was Buff night - the guys that came to the wedding will know that a good time was had by all.... they are an amazing cover band - play nothing but happy tunes but they all look really depressed doing so. Classic.

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond. ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605

For some reason this picture of Freyja has decided to be on it´s side - what can I do.... She is happy even if she is sideways to reality

Went for a drive the other day and picked Guðný up on the way and went to the statue of Jón Ósmann - the ferry man.

As you can see mum is very impressed by the statue, the bloke for whom the statue commemorates was an important person to communications in our fjord, he was at the base of the river that flows on the western side of the fjord and helped folk across on his ferry, both people, horses and goods, a vital link within the area of Skagafjordur.

This is probably the most impressive statue I have seen, it seems to capture the character of the man so well, there he is with the trout that he fished from the river mouth, looking towards Sauðárkrók for potential passengers...

the view that he has is really rather nice, am amazed that no one has asked for a building permit on the site. Mum is actually checking out the berries.

My "girls" my best friends in Sauðárkrók, Guðný, mum and Freyja - see how they all seem to be deep in thought about something....

Night walks have started again, night being that the sun is receeding, and so now on our later walk there is no longer a midnight sun to light our way. Still it is so nice, especially during the last couple of days there has been no north wind and so tranquility base is here.

this is the new "yacht" the sailing club has purchased - or rather some members of the club (me not included - but hopefully I will benefit and be able to get a few lessons...)

and ah yes ... the header to this post.... my front crown fell out on Saturday afternoon... not a pleasant experience.... but this means that all my dilly dallying about finding a dentist (choosing a dentist - there are three in the town and I HATE dentists.. came to an end. Thankfully one of the three was available before I broke down completely (was thinking of lying in bed under my doona until judgement day). So by 7pm tooth was back in place, however, I think that it would be a type of courage building, self awareness, self worth excercise in publishing photo of self without crown.... it is really quite off. So fore-warned is fore-armed this is not a pretty sight...

There is an itch in runners. ~Arnold Hano

At long last another post, last weekend was spent at an athletics carnival being held here in the hook. Maggi and I divied up the days so that we weren´t both hanging around down there waiting to put results into the computer. The event was a Young persons sporting carnival and included not only athletics but also football, horseriding, swimming, Icelandic wrestling, chess and golf. There were 1500 participants from all around Iceland. As the competitors were aged from 11 to 18 there were a lot of parents and other support people with them, which meant that the population of the town increased almost 5 fold.

This was our hang out - two extremely slow computers, we entered results in both and had to wait at least 4 minutes between each row of entries for it to save so we could move on to the next bit.... talk about frustrating!!

This is the track in town - if you increase the size you can see some of the caravan tent village that was up on the paddocks above town.

They are still filming Rokland, so they set up the cemetary scene outside the real cemetary again. (They filmed there in winter as well)

The old campsite was converted into a information - entertainment area. The weekend was jam packed with different events and fun stuff for all the family. It ended with a huge fireworks display that lasted over 15 minutes - yeh - they say we are in a recession....

In other news .... work is good, life is good, dog is good - economy is still crapping itself and our politicians still really don´t know what to do.

Later folks