Helen – Page 105 – helenthura.com

July 5, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 6

June 30, 2005.

This is a day without photos, as is half of Day 7. Somehow when I was transferring the photos from the memory cards to the storage device I messed up somehow. I lost 87 photos and Mum also lost her photos from that day.

We made 8 stops today, which can be seen on the map below.

1. Pausing to admire Esja, with meadows in the foreground filled with grazing sheep and Soley (butter cups)

2. Watching some Salmon fishing and observing the mighty flow of the LaxÃ¡ river. (LaxÃ¡ I think might be one of the most common names for a river/creek in Iceland, as it means Salmon River; just like in Australia we have quite a few “x mile creeks”)

3. Wild flower hunting, playing in old sheep pens and looking at waterfalls at FossÃ¡. This was a fantastic place to explore, Mum and I traipsed around looking at various plants, taking photos and samples. Then as we were driving along we would identify them and mark them off in the book.

4. Full steam ahead to Glymur. This was a lovely walk that took us through lots of Lupins and heaps of Anjelica. Lupines whilst pretty are to Iceland what Lantana is to Australia. My dear brother Karl went up to Glymur a fortnight before we did and like all his trip reports he as written it up perfectly and includes heaps of photos 🙂 – Karl and Tanja visit Glymur.

5. Poked around some waterfalls near Geitaberg. Mum is a big waterfall person, which means that any trip we take will involve visiting local waterfalls.

6. Reykholt. This village is the home to one of the boarding schools where Pabbi went to school and also the home of Snorri Sturluson. Whilst we were in Reykholt we had a look at Snorri’s Bath and Pabbi entertained us with tales of his school life here including students long-jumping over Snorri’s Bath which is about 3.8m in diameter.

This was one of the great things about going round the place with Pabbi and later when we had two cars I would choose to drive with Pabbi to listen to the various folktales or his memories about the places we would drive past.

7. Â Hraunfossar and Barnafoss. I will not say much about these waterfalls this time as we would revisit in a couple of days with Margaret and I have photos from that visit 🙂

We then drove over the back roads as Pabbi told us more tales about the area, such as I worked on that farm one Summer,Â a boy I went to school with lived on that farm etc etc.

8. Borgarnes. Such a sweet place is Borgarnes. This was our final destination for the day and we would spend the night here with Pabbi’s sister HjÃ¶rdÃs who greeted us with many hugs and laughs. She is so Pabbi’s sister, just hearing the tone and mannerisms she would use to say PallÂ was a laugh.Â The night could only get better because for tea we had Fish Soup. I had never had Fish Soup before and have not since and I must say I went into it a bit wary but oh my, it was utter heaven!!!

Then after lots of chatting and looking at photos it was time for bed just like it is for me now. 🙂

July 4, 2006July 5, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 5

June 29, 2005.

Today we explored the Reykjanes peninsula. Matthew stayed at Karl’s tugged up as he was not feeling the best.

A lot of the places we stopped along this trip were harbours that Pabbi had fished out of when he was on the boats. This made it similar to the trip I had taken along some of the same roads when I came through this area in 2002 with HafÃ¾Ã³r and PÃ¡lli as like father like son, PÃ¡lli had also worked on boats that came out of the harbours of the South-West.

Our first stop was at Vogar, where we had a look at the boats in the Harbour, took a few photos.

Next up was Keflavik, where we again walked round the harbour and took some photos. This was one thing I like about Iceland in general is that they are a large fan of art in public spaces.

After leaving Keflavik, we jutted up to GarÃ°ur for a poke round the harbour and then back down to Keflavik to head out to Hafnir. Our next stop after a poke round Hafnir was the “Bridge Between Two Continents” just south of Hafnaberg. This bridge is a bridge (duh) constructed over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is slowly and surely pulling Iceland apart. You can visit the gaps in various parts of Iceland and some have crevices or they may be like the one we visted which was a sand filled gulf.

When we were here we pottered round exploring the local flora, taking photos of tourists for them and building cairns.

Our next stop was to head out to Reykanesviti and the cliffs of ValahnÃºkur. This area was amazing. There were birds everywhere, and they liked to sit on the road so as we drove up a swarm of birds would just take off before our eyes.

This area was just amazing, I mean sure it was lava rock, and bits of grass but standing on the rocks that form “the beach”, hearing the birds all around you and the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks near your feet is pretty cool.

If anyone is a Sigur RÃ³s fan or they have watched the video clip for GlÃ³sÃ³li, you should recognise the scene in the second photo. This is the hill they go up at the end of the film clip

We then headed into GrindavÃk for lunch and to visit the Saltfisksetur Ã?slands (Salt Fish Museum). After that we followed the 427 round the coast and made a couple of stops to look at flowers. The first one is a HoltasÃ³ley (Mountatin Avens). The next photo is Mum up to her nose in orchids, I had decided to stay in the car, as I had taken my shoes off as my feet were starting to get sore and I didn’t fancy traipsing over rocks and pebbles with barefeet.

As we got closer to Kleifarvatn, we stumbled upon this cairn garden on the side of the road and we knew we had to stop and have a look round so we could tell Karl about it when we got home as he is a fan of stacking the rocks.

After stopping off at Kleifarvatn to have a look at the lake, we kept on making our way northish on the 42 and after a little while another familiar view greeted my eyes. Back in 2002 when I was going over a pretty similar road trip we were driving up this hill and there on the side of the road was this patch of grass that held a pretty good resemblance to the map of Iceland well apart from the fact it was missing the SW corner. Two and a half years later I was eager to see if it was still on that hillside and sure enough as we came over the hill there she was 🙂

Our last stop for the day was another place I had stopped on the first trip and that was at these fish drying racks. Whilst it would have been cool to see actual fillets drying the lines of fish heads was still pretty cool 🙂

After that it was time to head back into the city to start packing for the start of our big trip in the morning which would see us start our big trip round Iceland.

July 4, 2006July 4, 2006

Roast Pumpkin Soup

When we are at the fruit shop the other day they had a large bin of Butternuts for $1 each, so I grabbed one though in retrospect I should have grabbed a couple more.

I had planned to use the Pumpkin Soup recipe I have used before but to play with it a bit more. However, then I got thinking about the fantastic Roasted(?) Pumpkin Soup that Mary had had when we went to the Chocolate Buffet so I googled Roast Pumpkin Soup and lo and behold the first result up is from the ABC 🙂 The various ABC radio stations all feature various recipes and then the recipes from all across the country are placed in the one index – Backyard Recipe Index.

So seeing that the first result up was an ABC recipe I thought why the hell not, I’ll use this one, sure I made a few changes but it was so good, even Mum was chowing into it!

Roast Pumpkin Soup
adapted from a recipe by Elaine Wilson

Ingredients
1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced into medium sized cubes (3.5cmish)
4, 5, 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled (I would say use a clove per serving, it just enhances the flavour a bit)
a couple of tablespoons of soft brown sugar
1 large onion chopped
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 carrot chopped
1 stick of celery chopped
4 cups chicken stock
natural yoghurt, butter milk or sour cream, to serve
chopped fresh herbs, to serve
rye bread, to serve

Method:
Preheat oven 180C. Place the pumpkin and garlic on a well oiled tray and sprinkle with the brown sugar (to caramelise the pumpkin and just enhance the flavour more. Roast for 30 minutes or so until the pumpkin is cooked through
Whilst the pumpkin is roasting, add a little oil to a large pot and fry the vegetables until the onion is soft. Add the cumin. Add the chicken stock to the pot, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes or so. Add the pumpkin to the pot, peel the garlic and then add to the pot. Remove the pot from the heat.
In batches puree the mixture until smooth. If you are making this in advance and have time to allow the mixture to cool before pureeing do, or if like me and the clock is fast approaching dinner time before pureeing, pour the mixture into a separate container and then after each batch pour the pureed soup back into the original pot over a low heat to warm it up.
Serve with sour cream or natural yoghurt or butter milk, fresh chives or parsley if you have them and some hearty rye bread to dip with.

July 4, 2006

Simplicity 4589

I first saw this top at SouleMama and knew that after looking at the pattern and seeing what others had made with the same pattern (Anna, Anna again, Carol and SouleMama/Amanda again) I knew I had to make it!

We (Mum and I) made a few alterations to the pattern but the main thing we did was just to add a couple of inches to the bottom to make it a bit longer in the body and we curved in the side seams so it is more flattering.

🙂

July 4, 2006

The Southern Sky

Hello Sky 🙂

Many of the plans we had for this holiday were ripped from the bud when Mum fractured her leg so for something things it is about finding a new way to do what you had planned.

So I decided to embrace the light pollution that comes with living in a city and take star trail photos anyway. Matthew and his “Grove Street Brother” went up to Bundy last week to spend some time with friends up their and just be bums for a week and not have to work. So whilst he was away I had free reign over his balcony so the one night we had with less clounds than all the others I set up my tripod, tripped the shutter and walked away to let magic happen. 26 minutes later and this is what the camera blessed me with 🙂

Font is Franklin Gothic Medium.
Papers are all from Tracy Ann Designs
Orange – Basics Olinda
Green – Scrolls Brush Set
Purple – Artlines Duets Bridge Road
Cream – Artlines 5 Alice

July 3, 2006

Iceland Megatrip 2005 – Day 4

June 28, 2005

This was our laziest day to date. I mean we did jack all.

In the morning we must have hit up Smaralind, the local shopping center and cruised round the shops waiting for them to open, withdrawing mula from the ATM and hitting up the Hagkaup to get some lunch supplies so we weren’t always stealing Karl’s food as well as buying a bath towel for me to use in Iceland (I had intended to leave it behind when I left but it was pink) and buying The Holy Grail of chocolate bars – Prince Polo. Helen + Prince Polo = very happy 🙂

In the afternoon we went over to TÃ³ti’s and had a blast of course.

Bringing home the photo fights, Matthew, Silja and Birta going camera crazy.

This is what happens when Birta gets too close to the lens. Hello distorted perspective 🙂

The following photos are some of the photos that Birta took when she was in charge of my camera. As soon as Birta and Silja but mainly Birta learnt how to use my camera it was almost in their hands more than mine. Not that I minded 🙂

After the four of us rough housing around in the girls bedroom we moved out onto the patio where there was much more room 🙂 The first photo is of Birta and me – duh! and the second one is a crack up beacuse Birta wanted me to give her the camera back but I said it was my turn 🙂

The evening ended with the girls giving us a concert with TÃ³ti on the guitar. Some of the songs we recognised as they are songs we have in Australia as well, some Mum remembered from when she was living in Iceland and it was just the perfect ending to a fun afternoon.

That was our day. Just like I said a pretty non-adventurous day. 🙂