Gleðilegt sumar! Summer is here!

I am turning into the grumpy lady in the neighbourhood. I think this is the effect of living in very close proximity to everyone in the village. I really like it in terms of my work, seeing that you know where this dog and this cat lives and whose horse was brought in with a nasty wound. However, when I get home in the evening or at the weekend, I want to be anonymous, minding my own business in the garden. So I am still keeping the dream alive that I can move to a place of my own where I have acres to myself and my eccentric habits.

Another thing bugging me today is that Lappi seems to be having a teenage crisis a bit early, being disobedient on purpose, as if to try my patience. People that know me well would maybe know that I don't have a lot of patience most of the time! He seems hellbent on eating my 'gúmmískór'-Chech made rubber slip-ons traditionally worn in the Icelandic countryside. This in spite of him knowing from an early age that he must not, and has always obeyed by this rule. Also, he tears out the insoles knitted by my mum and chews on them. I am sure that he loves the buttery sweaty juice coming from these wonderful flaps of wool, but even sweeter must be the feeling of being naughty!

Today is the Icelandic 'sumardagurinn fyrsti', or first day of summer. Traditionally it is very wet, windy and cold, if not snowing, on this day. People will however persevere with going on parades and children will receive a summer gift of a rubber ball, skipping rope or summer clothes. This is a very Icelandic day and an official day off. So today I have been in the garden playing with Lappi and planning the beds (in my head, I am not doing anything yet as we can still expect snow) and the weather has been behaving so far. It is great to have a day off, as the last two days have been craaaazy at work. Everybody seems to be selling horses abroad these days (they must be getting a lot of Icelandic krona for their Swedish krona and Euro) and the lambing season is looming large, so the next few weeks are going to be manic!

Well, I guess it was about time people got some news from the wonderful town of Hella! By the way, I am not doing anything about my thesis corrections yet....yikes!