Thinking with my stomach....

Whoa! Where does the time go? It feels like 5 minute, not a week since I last waffled at you. In which case I'd make myself comfortable and grab a cup of tea. Dark Chocolate McVites are optional... well for some anyway!

This week has been cool, lots of things to do. The lambs (Guts & Guzzle) are doing really well.  I've been weeding the veg garden and we can now see proper seedlings coming through, not just grass. Hopefully we'll also get the potatoes coming through before I leave too. About half of the sheep are now sheared and in the pens near the mountains just waiting for release.  The lambs have all been tagged (I turned into a bit of a girl and winced when the snipping of ears was going on) and we're now just waiting to get the last few sheep down and sheared before getting them all on to the mountain.

Now don't be fooled by the wording of the above, my sole involvement in the sheep shearing has been to watch Einar (in the photo above) do the actual shearing, then pick up the fleece and other bits of wool. If needed I've been helping to move the sheep around in the paddock/shed. Having said that, picking out sheep and actually getting hold of the ones you want, is a bit like trying to grab a greased chicken that you've just whispered "sage n onion" too. Anyone would think they knew we were just fattening them up for the table...

Still I think they're quite cute really - that's mainly because I haven't been butted or kicked in the face by a manic ball of wool... yet.

I also caught this pretty view when we were rounding them up the other day. The thing that looks like some knackered piece of corrugated iron is actually a sheep shed  that was built in about 1930 and is on the site of something way older. Einar's mentioned that they've found a few old building foundations and skulls around this area when digging waterlines etc. Before the 1900's the piece of land between here and the current farm was very boggy, so it was the logical place for settlers to build.

In between sheep stuff, veg garden stuff and house stuff, we had Inga's birthday on Friday. The perfect excuse for me to indulge a little in one of my new favourite things, Kaldi. It's brewed not far from here and has no preservatives in it. So far I've found 3 varieties and really, really, really like the dark version. It's slightly fizzy like a lager but dark like a good ale. Actually its really hard to describe, other than to say "yes I will definitely have another one!" You should probaby check out this link

http://www.grapevine.is/Food/ReadArticle/Kaldi-The-Coolest-Beer-in-Iceland

Which will not only tell you a bit about the brewery, but will also take you to the Grapevine site. Basically this is the online version of a free paper in Iceland that has all the icelandic news, just in English. Did you realise that they've just voted in a top icelandic comedian as their Mayor of Reykjavik? Bet you didn't and after reading his interviews it was probably a really good move too!

I also indulged the baking urge this week and cooked chocolate chip cookies, ginger cake (a bit heavy on the ginger but ok) and a seriously good giant chocolate brownie as Inga's birthday cake.  Nearly everything has gone now which is good news as the bananas are almost completely black and its going to be banana bread time in the next couple of days. Apparently this traveling lark is meant to make me lose weight?

I've also developed a bit of an obsession, this time for Skyr (pronounced Skeer). It's possibly the yummiest thing I've had to eat in ages and its way to easy to eat a whole large tub of the stuff!

It's a little like Greek yoghurt and completely not at the same time.  It's made from skimmed milk but you'd never know as its really creamy. The plain version is a little more sour than our natural yoghurt and the flavoured versions have proper fruit flavours and vanilla bean in them rather than 'flavourings'. Its probably why their pear version actually tastes of pear and not vaguely like apple/mango. I think the only place that's stocking it in the UK at the minute is Whole Foods in Kensington High Street. I've no idea what price they're selling it at but I'd recommend you get a little one (like the one above) and give it a go.

It's a good thing that there are some good places to walk around here too!  I managed to get down to Kjarnaskógur, on Saturday, it's only a mile or so outside of Akureyri and it's a beautiful place to walk around.

It makes a lie of the standing icelandic joke "What do you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland" answer? "Stand up" (seriously I hear this from pretty much every Icelander I speak to for more than 20 minutes).

As you can see though, its not quite true here! Bear in mind though that this is a pretty small area, maybe about as big as Hyde Park? Just packed with trees! Anyway it was a great place to walk around and I was there about 4 hours without doing all the trails. I did get some lovely pictures of Akureyri and the surrounding valley from the top of the cliff walk though.

I also found a pretty cool 'viking' circle there too!

Each one has a different face carved into it...

Totally cool and a fun thing to come across in the midst of a tree-fest.

So, I'll leave you with this last little picture of a truly beautiful midnight sun from the other night, sometimes they really take my breath away.

Catch you soon x