Nelia Eva. Maternity photo session :)

Coffee time with little Nelia Eva and Izabela at Kjarvalsstaðir on Saturday at noon. 21 March, spring is in the air. Beautiful natural light and colours :))))

Enjoying solar eclipse in Iceland :)

Friday morning, 20 march at 9:37 in Reykjavik. Solar eclipse in Iceland, 97% of the sun was covered. It started at 8:38 am and finished at 10:39. Really amazing phenomenon! I was looking forward to it for a long long time.. and finally it was uncertain until the last moment where I was going to watch it. I was even considering going to the south to black beach at Vik to observed this amazing spectacle.

Finally, we were seeing it from Reykjavik, just in front of the main university building, Háskóla Íslands :) Huge crowd of cheerful people waiting for the event. Martin was helping his friend, an astronomer from the university science centre, to set up equipment for solar eclipse observation. And there was a shortage of the special glasses so we were letting people use them for a while to enjoy the solar eclipse view. 

And I didn't have a special filter for my camera, I borrowed it from nice French photographer when the sun was getting fuller again.. So the 97% eclipse photo I borrowed from my friend, Tomasz :)
And it was getting so cold, we weren't prepared for it as the morning was extremely sunny and quite warm.. So basically we were shivering when the sun was covered almost totally, it got darker and very very cold.. I wished I had had my gloves and thick lopapeysa (Icelandic woollen sweater) with me..

Martin was guiding a group at 11 at the science centre so I went with him to watch him in action and have an Icelandic lesson about physics :) That's a lot of fun, I enjoyed it so much :)))))))

Climbing, eating and protesting. Family weekend :)

Previous weekend, just before spring arrival. We spent really nice together. I was very happy about it!!!

I already mentioned the huge storm on Saturday last week. We went for a hike in Heiðmörk after huge Storm on Saturday morning with the youngest niece. And afterwards dinner at sister's place. Martin was falling asleep as he spent whole morning and afternoon attending rescue interventions :)))

Saturday morning we spent at climbing wall with girls: the oldest and youngest. A lot of fun and I finally climb the 'big' wall. Later tasty pizza lunch at Eldsmidjan :)))

Then we went for a protests at Asturvöllur square to demand real democracy in Iceland. Over 7.000 people came. Add it was getting really cold.
Finally, we went to Martin's mother's place for home made waffles. I was helping in the kitchen to prepare whipped cream. 9 people at the big table, 3 kids, one teenager, playing piano. Really big family :))))

Whales and crazy wind. You can never be bored in Iceland :)

We have extremely stormy weather in Iceland this week. It started on Tuesday. Snow storm and a huge wind up to 20 m/s. We couldn't go out with kids. A lot of cars went off the road, 500 tourists stuck near Golden Circle.. Search and rescue teams were call out to helped troubled people. Tinni was in a main edition of TV news during Björgunarsveitir's action, just have a look as the weather looked like. Tinni in Tv

Friday afternoon. Going out of the museum Whales of Iceland in Grandi, very close to my wooden hose by the harbour. We went them with school kids. Can't believe my eyes. I couldn't walk up the street. The gusts of wind were so strong that I was almost blown in the air. I got home wet and stressed because the struggle with the wind wasn't easy at all.

Today is Saturday. The strongest storm and wind this winter, it hadn't happen since last year, up to 30 m/s in the town.. I was awaken many times at night by extreme hauling of the wind.
Tinni woke up at 6 am and went to the seed of search and rescue team to attend the possible calling for help. I couldn't sleep afterwards, I was a little bit worried because never seen such a strong wind.. and then I woke up after 9 am again and I couldn't believe my eyes, the tall trees were almost lying on the ground around the house and moving with incredible speed up and down. Such a scary and creepy view.. I was wondering if the window panes will be strong enough and wouldn't crush while being under such a huge pressure of wind. And if my wooden house is still standing by the harbour without any harm.

While ago Tinni just called me to ask if everything is fine around the house because they got a call from our place at Vestubaer too. I went outside to checked it out as the wind is getting weaker, but still there are strong unpleasant  and possible dangerous gusts. I met a neighbour that notified the police about one of the trees and talked to her. Everything is fine, she was just afraid as she lives alone.

I hope Martin will be back soon. I felt relieved when I heard his warm and happy voice. Still a lot of work to do helping out people in need..

Different huge topic. Newly opened museum Whales of Iceland in Reykjavik is really awesome. I was hugely impressed by 23 to-scale artificial models of whales exhibited there. Every kind of whale found off the shores of Iceland is represented in 2 big rooms. It's the biggest whale museum in Europe according to The Guardian (more photos  and info here) and maybe, as same people say, even in the world.

The models are made of steel and foam and look very realistic. Have even friendly eyes looking at you with curiosity. You can see there even the blue whale, the largest and heaviest mammal to have evolved on Earth, up to 33.6 m long and can weigh even 190 tonnes... It really feels like walking among swimming whales at the sea bottom :))))

(photos by Domi, Samsung Galaxy S4)

“The idea is that you will feel like you’re walking on the bottom of the ocean. Everything you see will be cast in blue, and you will feel as if you are walking among swimming whales.”