It's been quite a while since I was blogging last, but there's quite a good reason for that. Not that there hasn't been happening anything around here, the truth is: there's been happinging so much that there was no time to sit down and put it in here.
I'm happy and thankful when I have a quick look in here and see that you still come back and check on our site and blogg even though there hasn't been much going on lately. I'll try to make it up to you and update things as soon as I've time to do so.
Well, the reason I haven't been blogging is we finally moved to a new house in town. We've been waiting for that to happen for quite some time (few years to be precise) as it wasn't just any house but Ingólfur's birthplace. His dad built the house 1963 and has been living there since. About 7 years ago he applied for a senior citizen appartment here in town and was put on the waiting list. And then nothing happened, he waited, kept asking, nothing happened, waited more, asked again, still nothing. Until this spring when he got to know that a flat in an appartment building for seniors would be available soon (not the place where he's been on the waiting list!) and after a good talk to Ingólfur's sister, he decided to go for it.
We couldn't believe that was finally happening, but were really happy about the trust we got to make his place ours. There's a big garden around the house, which suits me and my roses just fine. They of course came along and so did a lot of other plants as the new owners of our old place have no interest in having a garden and are just going to make a parking space out of it sometime. They would've thrown everything away.
In May we started to measure the rooms in the house and tried to decide what we'd have to do to make it ours. By then Ingólfur had already told the buyers they could get our flat on the 15th of June, which was quite bold of him, knowing we hadn't done a single hammerstroke yet. But where there's a will there's a way, isn't it?
I spent hours on the IKEA homepage, trying to design a kitchen and find things suiting us for the new place. We ordered new flooring and paint for the walls. In middle of May we went south to do some shopping, including buying/ordering the kitchen. When at the warehouse we had to change which fronts we would take as the ones chosen weren't as suitable as we thought. It was good that I already had done some homework as the salesmanager just opened my drawing and we could keep on working in there. Unfortunately we never saw the final drawing as the second screen, where we were supposed to see what he was doing, didn't work. Well, it was quite some challenge to put up the kitchen with no final pic... We managed anyway. Reminded me a bit of these Wasgii jigsaws where you have some hints, but don't know what the final pic looks like. We were told there would be some waiting time to get everything for the kitchen, but most things were storing and would be sent soon (good to have a garage to store things...)
Soon after our trip we had a meeting with Ingólfur's family to clear out the stuff his dad had left in the house and the siblings were supposed to split up. Everybody was in good mood and things went fast and smooth. Stuff nobody wanted was given to a local charitysale. 
So now there we are close to the end of May, 23 days before we have to move out of our old flat and nothing done yet. Well, in fact some things done, the flooring and the paint already arrived and the kitchen was hopefully on it's way, but in fact there was a huge amount of work left to do, which we couldn't have done without the help of family and friends. I'll put that in the blogg later in the right timeline, so you can hopefully read about the ups and downs there. 
To make a long story short: managed to move out in time!
Stay tuned ;)

On top of the list is going for a longer or shorter ride. And that's what we've been doing the last days on different times of the day and different places. Good for us and the horses to change scenery a bit, different things to see and experience. 

Of course we are not forgetting about Hugleikur and Pandóra! They are having a great time at Hagi even though there are quite some flies at the moment. Both are growing and maturing and are really interested in people. 

and time to get the stable ready for the next season, pick chantarelle mushrooms and berries. Jón always goes berrypicking and then keeps huge amounts of bilberries in his freezer. He often picks that much we get a huge share, too. In return we try to spot good places for him when out for a hack. Today we met him on our ride and could tell him about an even better place to pick. Fönix was a bit surprised to see him, but happy about getting a clap and treats.

The place to be this summer? Of course Stuðlagil in Easticeland. Everybody went there, some did rather stupid stuff and posted it online, but others just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
We took a daytrip and actually hit on the hottest day this summer. Good that there's a small river on the way where you can cool down and take a drink. Well, it was definitely worth the trip and the walk and I'd love to go there again, but maybe more around the evening, think it could make nice effects for taking pics. 

Or was it just a mirage? We got lucky today and had a rather rare visitor in our garden. A butterfly! To be precise a Red Admiral, which is rather big. Butterflies are very uncommon in Iceland, at least those big and colourful we know from Europe. Don't know where it went, but at least I got a few pics. 

or should I call it "landscaping"? Anyway, I finished the flowerbed at the eastside of the house today. There was a part with just gravel, which I emptied and changed into a flowerbed, too. Jón had already put some driftwood and a handmade bird in there, which of course stayed the way they already were. But the stones had to go and make place for flowers. The plan is to have aquilegia in different shapes and colours alongside the wall and have space for some summerflowers in front of them. Therefore I dug up and planted all aquilegia I found in the garden growing in different places at the new place. Hope they'll start growing well next year. Next to our entrance I'm going to put a pink peony. And then I have to go shopping for plants... Think I'm gonna like that!

One of my favourite seabirds is the Northern gannet or Súla as it is called in Icelandic. We sometimes see one or two around here when they are hunting for fish, but they don't nest in our area. On the other hand they do so at Langanes peninsula and at Rauðinúpur, a huge rock in the sea just a few meters from the coast where you can walk very close and have a good look at them. I've never been there before, but really liked the place and the walk there. We were more or less alone with the birds, which were rather nosy and had a good look at us when flying by. Great experience!

One of my favourite things. And when you get a new garden you never know what you get and which surprises await you. This morning I was rather surprised to discover quite some Birch boletes in the lawn. They are in  mycorrhizal association with our birch trees and which shows that things are working quite well here. Nice not to have to go looking for mushrooms, they just grow in our garden and are edible. 
Later today our golden rain was in for a cut. Didn't like to do it, but it was clearly necessary. Hope it won't be too angry with me and bloom again next year.