Gleðilega páska and Puppy Love!

Gleðilega páska or Happy Easter to everyone, I hope you are all having a relaxing and well deserved break, most Icelanders have 5 days off for Easter, from Easter Thursday to Easter Monday.

The Icelandic flags have been flying since Palm Sunday. There are dozens of flag poles around this town, I can count 6 from just one of my front windows. Flag flying is a national past-time here and many people have flag poles in their yard.   

They have been flying at full mast all week 

but when I awoke on Good Friday (Föstudagurinn langi...Long Friday) they had all changed to half mast. 

 The flag goes up and down quite often on this flag pole in my front yard and I am begining to think that the flag flyers are really elves or the hidden people as I never see anyone putting it up or taking it down and this morning when I got up at 6am all the flags had gone. I will however endeavour to catch one of these mysterious flag flyers in the act and get a snap.

I must tell you I have a bad case of puppy love at the moment and have fallen for this little cutie, her name is Nina and she is the latest addition to Ross and Olga's home. 

This is the first time in my life that I don't have a pet and I am not sure at this stage I want one but with Nina I get to have the joys of a pet without the responsibility of one...bit like being a grandparent I guess.  While she is so young and until Olga goes on maternity leave (which is not too far away) I get to puppy sit during the week while they are both at work. Each morning I walk around to their house at about 8.30am and pick up Nina and bring her back to the Post Office where she spends the day with me until around 2.30pm when I take her back home.

She is very obedient and is pretty much house trained now...we rarely have any accidents...she sits and listens and really wants to do the right thing.

Nina sitting patiently while I take a photo and of course hoping she gets the treat that I have in my pocket.

Olga said the other day she wonders if Nina thinks she has a secret life, as I pick her up after they have gone to work and drop her back before they get home. Perhaps she thinks she has a double life where this funny woman who speaks very bad Icelandic comes and takes her for a walk to a place that has lots of stairs...which are a bit of a struggle for little legs, who plays with her, makes her sock toys and gives her lots of treats and then whisks her back home before anyone knows she has been out and about.

Öskudagur (Ash Wednesday)

Religion here is mainly Lutheran and the lead up to lent is a little different to what I have experienced before...coming from a very lapsed Catholic background...I sort of get the feeling that Icelanders really take nothing from the old Catholic tradition but the dates.

Monday was Bolludager...bun day...cream bun day to be precise...this is the day you can eat as many cream buns as you like without guilt.  These cream and chocolate buns are in every home and workplace, apparently the baker here in this little town made 6000 cream buns...2 per person...somebody had my share.   Children make wands or paddles to spank their parents and get a bun for every spank.   The wand or paddle is possibly a derivative of the Catholic priest sprinkling the congregation with holy water using an aspergillum.

Tuesday however is Sprengidagur or eat till you burst day....so after stuffing yourself with cream buns the day before, on Fat Tuesday you over indulge on salted lamb and beans....apparently have your fill before Lent fasting...however I don't think there is any Lent fasting here.  Bolludager and Spengidagur combined seem similar to Shrove Tuesday...pancake day...but also traditionally the last day you could eat meat on the Catholic calendar before Easter.

This leads me to Öskudagur or Ash Wednesday....in the Catholic tradition it is considered quite a solemn day of repentance and reflection and the start of fasting. However here it is like halloween, children dress up in costumes go into town to shops and sing for candy.   Traditionally in Iceland small cloth bags filled with ash were made and then pinned surreptitiously to the backs of as many people as possible....you had a good day if you came home with your back covered in bags....this later turned into something similar to Valentines day where it showed a girls interest in a boy...I don't think it is practiced much today.

Happy Easter!

I wish you all a very happy Easter where ever you are. Enjoy your well deserved break!

A week ago I caught up for lunch with two dear friends and work colleagues from ECU days, Judith and Gill and this photo is a hello to Ross who also used to work with them!

Well I can tick off a few more things on my mental inventory on the house renovation list, back garden...tick, front garden...tick, decking painted (back and front)...tick. Last weekend Jesse spent Saturday with me working in the front garden ( he is such a good son). Jesse pruned the very large hedge that I have...even though he has never pruned before he did an excellent job.

After the hedge we dug up the old couch lawn down the side of the driveway and planted 'Summer Scents' which will eventually grow to a small hedge.

Decking tick!

Hopefully over the Easter break I will be able to tick off a couple more things. Tomorrow I am getting a second quote for new front screen door and the renewing of a few flyscreens for the windows and next week will ring insurance for a couple of new windows that are cracked or broken plus all the blinds and windows are to be cleaned....phew!..we are nearly there!

Just because he makes his presence felt...Squeak!

Grumpy Squeak!

Fat Squeak!

and to sign off...something from the garden!