Oliver and Aurelia from Austria came to visit Fjördís and her foal today. After spending quite some time with the foals and horses, we went out for delicious dinner at Naustið and after that for a drive to Tungulending, where we had coffee and a nice chat, before ending the day at the top of Húsavík mountain, enjoying the view. Think they liked their little filly a lot and it was nice to watch how interested the horses were in our visitors.

 

 

 

 

The last days have been really busy as we are preparing the annual riders' ball in our riding hall. Next weekend there will be the local festival called "Mærudagar", which means "Sweets' days". On Friday evening there'll be the ball, the 4th year in a row now.
There's a lot to prepare, muck out and thouroughly clean the stable, clean and paint the boards, water and condense the floor and a lot more things. People have been very helpful and everybody joing in as much as he/she can. So we hope for it to be a big success as the years before as our riding club uses the income to pay back the loan for building the riding hall.

 

 

 

 

As you remember, I made a little experiment with some potatoes I found in our fridge. 
Today I stopped by and checked on them and in fact some of them had started to grow. Now it's just wait and see if and what I'll get in autumn.
Anyway, it's exciting to try new things out!

 

After getting a small glimpse of Þrá's and Fjördís' foals yesterday, we spent quite some time there to watch them and see how they'd react to having us around for quite some time. And of course to check if List already had her "red stallionfoal" (Ingólfur is always teasing me that I'll get a chestnut stallion instead of the colourful mare I'm hoping for). Well, she hadn't and it doesn't look like she'll go into labour very soon. Hope she won't explode until then...
At first both mares and foals were really cautious and preferred to flee instead of talking to us, but after sitting down and Fönix and Svipur deciding to check us out and get a good scratch, everybody calmed down and both foals couldn't resist coming and having a look at us. I really liked what I saw and am all agog with curiosity how Ingólfur's colt will develop, he's such an eyecatcher.
Afterwards we checked out our horses in Hagi. They were quite far away but after whistling Snerpa started to come towards us followed by Kóngur and Rögnir. Pandóra seemed not to know what to do, wanting to follow the teenagers, but her mum banned it and ran away instead. As I had feared the flies had been that aggressive that Snerpa had nearly scratched off all of her mane... Well, it will regrow and I was already prepared for it. So no Tina Tuner looks until late winter.
The youngsters were happy to see us whilst Vordís and Pandóra were just dashing to and fro, which made it possible for me to get some nice pics. Anyway, hope she'll be more relaxed next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm back home again after a rather long stay with my friends and family in Germany and Austria.
First stop was at my friend Gabi's place, where I got the chance to see newly hatched tortoises. They are really cute, but already look very adult when hatching. In fact just tiny little grown up tortoises. I was really faszinated about their inital behaviour as I'm really new to the tortoise way of life. Their parents have a beautiful place in the garden, where they can roam around as they like. Faszinating creatures!
There were a lot more things we did when I was there, for instance go for a walk with the dogs in the nearby forest or visiting her horses at their stable. Great time!
Afterwards I visited my family in Austria, helped a bit here and there, took care of my mum's balconry garden (I was especially good at harvesting and tasting tomatoes), met with our friend Gerti, visited her horse and chatted with friends I met there.
Of course I went to Waldviertel, enjoyed looking for mushrooms in the forrest and a perfect Sachertorte at our neighbours' place. Busy, but very good times. 
Now I'll have to have a look at all our horses and then be active moving my horses, eventhough Ingólfur and Hjördís very really diligent on back when I was gone. Good to know them in good hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Ingólfur and Hjördís checked the horses in the morning they were surprised by Fjördís and her little filly after Óskasteinn frá Íbishóli. The little lady belongs to our friends in Austria and are we pretty sure they'll like her very much. She's spotted like her mum, but with more white. Her base colour seems to be red dun, which makes her red dun spotted. Looking forward to meeting her when I'm back home. Now there's just List left to give birth. Hope she'll wait for me.