When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste. ~Laiko Bahrs

A first in the house of Sigga - I did some baking yesterday - the last time this was attempted was before Christmas in 1987,  Unnur and I thought we would try and be Icelandic and bake cookies and things.  Well, it was a disaster.   This time round I thought it time that I made the brown layer cake that is my favourite (for Christmas).  Thinking that I would need to do it a couple of times - well for a first attempt it wasn´t so bad.  I used mum's recipe - problem with recipes from mum - they often don't come with instructions - just ingredients......

This is the dough which then gets baked for about 10-12 minutes (I think I may have over baked it as it ended up too dry)

The next step is to put in the butter icing - yes it's just butter, icing sugar and eggs, - I forgot the vanilla essence - it wasn't listed as an ingredient - but is apparently a requirement.... oh well, next time  - the burnt offerings to the right are my biscuits - we made ginger nut and chocolate and coconut (they ended up very large...... again - will know better next time)

This is the final result - the taste is good, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

In other news Uncle Andres came today with the reward for all the work Olga and Ross have been doing - 4 lambs are now nestling in mums freezer... oh, except for the back that we are having for dinner tonight - yummy!!!  There will be lots of lamb on the menu this winter.... I also ordered half a pony the other day.  So, there is no chance that any of us will be short of food this winter.

Have a great week people.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

Yes there is definitely a change in the weather coming -  

Wind in Iceland is measured by metres per second... those dark purple colours are 22-24 metres per second... In Aus it would be cyclone weather.  The forecast has actually toned down a lot over the last 24 hours, on Thursday the forecast said that Saturday was not a day for travelling - as a result a lot of things planned for this weekend have been cancelled.  I chickened out of driving south to Borganes today - worried that I would end in difficulties on the mountain pass home.  I am not the most confident of drivers in the snow.  In hindsight I could have gone  - bet then I would only just be getting home now.. So I am glad I didn't go.

In other news am transferring some photos to flickr, none recent recent, as the batteries in my camera seem to last about 5 seconds... so I have "borrowed" a charger from work and will be more "green" in my picture taking.

We have had an amazing autumn so far which even included a walk on the beach - barefoot..

I will also upload some photos from when Unnur and I went with the cousins to Akureyri - what a great weekend that was!

I am not sure about this photo - I think that we are all looking a tad strange.... 

Will leave this for now....

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia. ~Charles Schulz

Update


Another weekend is over, gee they go quickly these days.... where did it go and what have I done since last Tuesday....

Big news is that Olga and Ross have both started work at the fish factory, the above photo is borrowed from the Fisk Seafood website from when the president and his wife came to visit.  Olga is working at a workstation just like this.

While Ross is threading fish heads that will then be hung out to dry.  The technique is called Seila. 

I am still in semi procrastination mode, so there is not much to report from my neck of the woods.  Mums car was put into the garage over the weekend to de-frost, hopefully no damage was done, however the temps did go down to minus 10 on Thursday night.  Tomorrow or Tuesday Maggi and I will take the car to its winter home, where it will be kept warm and dry until next spring when I promise I will be a better daughter and take mum out on weekend jaunts in the Freyjamobile. 

The slaughter season is almost over and so the winter duties commence, beginning with working out to which Christmas buffet one must go.  So far I have two on the burner, one with work over on the other side of the fjord - have decided to take ma, and we will stay overnight.  This is at Sveitasetrið see the details on http://hofsstadir.is/hotel/ This one is planned for the 10th of december.  The other one that is in formulation is on the 4th.  The extended family will be going to Miðgarð, where there will be feasting, entertainment and dancing.  Should be good.  

In other news Ross and I are trying to make our own wine.... the start wasn't good, we read the instructions - but forgot to follow them.  Stay tuned over the next four weeks to see how that all turns out.

Maggi leaves for Aus this week, yet another to attend the wedding of Maja and Jason, I will be there in spirit and look forward to all the updates on blogs and facebook as well as hopefully lots of photos from the event and the trips of Maggi, Jóhanna, Guðný, Stebbi and Finnur.  

On the political front, things within the council are hotting up.  One of the minority party reps lost the plot last week.... I will devote more time to this as things unravel.

stay tuned... or not....

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. ~Don Marquis

Well, I have been rather slack with this old blog of mine.  Not because there is nothing happening.  More like there is soooo much happening.


Now my cousins Jóhanna and Guðný are almost reaching Australian shores.  The last I heard from Jóhanna was that they were experiencing 40 degrees C and wet weather in Singapore...  do I envy them... no sorry, not at all...  But, I am so glad that they are better travelers than I.  I know that they will have a wonderful time with my siblings in Aus... I would be there in a heart beat - if I could travel in the time that it takes the heart to beat.  Slack... yep, that is the main thread in this blog.


I even can't be bothered uploading any photos - probably because I haven't taken any... again another sign of slackness on my part.


Olga and Vicki have both posted on the horse feast of last weekend so I won't go on too much about that, only to say that it improves with every year and will be a part of my annual social calendar for as long as the horse feast is being faired.  


Work is getting more relaxing - so now it is time to do the fiddly bits, reconciliations and all that stuff - including writing to the tax office about things that aren't clear or not correctly reported in the past - you know the stuff that you put off till you have time - now I have it so no more procrastination there... 


Politics is fun, yep - not an oxymoron.  I was at a conference of local councils discussing things financial last weekend - it was quite interesting - but the thing that hit me the most was the fact that there were over 300 people there from local councils throughout the country and I thought - hmmmm could this be a very top heavy management system thing going on.  Shouldn't perhaps the first economical rationing thing be the coalition of councils... the most obvious being on the south west corner - ie the greater Reykjavik area where there are 5 different councils that could quite easily be one major capital city... Then here in the North there are opportunities for more consolidation of resources and administration.  It will no doubt all happen in the next few decades, but perhaps it is time to get things moving a little quicker.


Vicki is here and will be placing an offer on the post office AGAIN, lets see if the powers that be will actually be receptive this time....  Olga and Ross have a job at the fish factory.. not the most glamorous of jobs, but a decent place to work,  things will be fine for them.  It will take time, but it will at least be a start. 


What a dull and boring post this has been.   Freyja dog has gone to bed so I think I should probably join her.  She is not too happy with me at the moment either - it's been quite a while since we have gone for a long walk.  I don't feel all that guilty though as I know that Vicki, Olga, Ross and ma have been doing a fine job for me.  


In other news, it's getting darker sooner every day - time to get mums van ready for the winter - the first frosts were last night so we need to empty the water and do other stuff... probably would be good to find a home for it for the winter.....


With the first frosts come the northern lights so I will give you a link to a photographer that has taken some wonderful shots of the northern lights just east of here.


http://www.parrikar.com/blog/

enjoy

Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst. ~Willaim Penn

Yes it's been a while since I last visited here.... Where does the time go.. where do I waste it and where is it being well spent.  Well, for the last three weeks I can say it has been well spent.  

My most favourite person in the whole world has been here with me.. My big sister...   Like most folk I forget to tell the people that matter most how much they mean to me.  She will shortly be on her way from London to Perth.  A long and painful trip - the one I haven't taken for over ten years now..... It was so so good to have her here.   

In other news, Ross and Olga are now both here and looking for work, which I think will be banging on the door within a few days.  Although things in Iceland are not so good at the moment and the national government is making all sorts of irrational cuts to health and other local organisations in the rural areas, I refuse to be pessimistic, this is a great place with huge potential - it is just a matter of getting people to work together as one and to try and let national politics not get in the way.  We need to think of the local community - what we have and what we can build on.  Like most things political - easy enough to say but extremely hard to actually invoke.   What we do have in our favour and what we have plenty of is sheep....

Which is a good thing..... if Icelandic sheep farmers are able, then there is a world market out there just waiting for them.  Icelandic lamb is unique in that after birth in May they go up to the mountains and stay there in pastures green, with herbs and berries to eat until early September when they are brought down and sorted and slaughtered..... Sad, but true - lamb that you eat is never older than 6 months old.  Hence, always prime lamb, none of your almost a year old but still passes for lamb stuff.  

But as everyone knows - you can't live off a sheep's back.... now what was that historians name????  I know that Prof Black is very very ashamed of me at this moment ....    

So, with the budget cuts to the health establishments, the next few days will be spent protesting and attending local shire meetings to try to get the message to the politicians in Reykjavik that they can't just make budget cuts according to some excel sheet projections based on communities of 320.000 somewhere in another part of the world.  This is a small country and yes, there are opportunities for rationalisation and centralisation of services, but in matters of health and services to the elderly then it is better to have a more localised approach.  The human factor also needs to be included in the excel sheet.  

Stole the photo from Olga - aren't they the greatest.... love them so much!!!!!


So, such is life, it's a good life.  


Will try and be more conscientious with my blogging... but hey, if I am not...........