Off hours — logbook

The hours between commits.

Mostly outside, mostly on water in one of its states — liquid in summer, frozen in winter — and sometimes far from Stockholm altogether.

On the water

I row competitively, and from 2024 to 2026 I served on the board of Akademiska Roddföreningen — responsible for the club's boats and equipment, and stepping in as interim coach for the competitive team. A rowing club is a hundred small jobs nobody sees: varnish days, rigging repairs, a Swedish flag hung over the boat-bay doors for midsummer. That's the part I loved.

A quad scull seen from above, oars fanned out over dark water — The quad from the bridge — race day

A white boathouse at dusk with a large Swedish flag over the doors and people on the balcony — Midsummer at the boathouse

Club members restoring a wooden rowing boat outdoors, lifebuoys hung on an oar signpost — Varnish day — club boats are everyone's boats

Close-up of four oar blades resting over rippling water — Blades at rest between sessions

A scull passing a race marker on an autumn canal, more boats beyond — Autumn head race on the canal

Two rowers on ergometers on a dock overlooking the water, club jersey reading Akademiska Roddföreningen Stockholm — Erging with a view, club colours on

Several crews in eights and quads gathering on a sunlit river below forested hills — Training camp — the flotilla forming

Three crews spread across a wide river under a big sky — Camp miles: three crews and a big sky

On the snow

Swedish winters converted me: long-distance skating when the natural ice carries, cross-country touring when the snow is right, alpine when it isn't. The season the water freezes is the season I look forward to most.

A ski tourer crouched over a backpack in a vast snowy fjäll plain, skis planted upright — Repacking on the fjäll — somewhere above the treeline

An alpine skier in orange pants setting off under a blue sky — Alpine day, blue sky for once

Elsewhere

I travel slow when I can — a loaded bike through rural Sweden, a backpack further afield. It started with an Erasmus winter in Linköping that eventually turned into a life here.

Sunset over a rocky heather-covered coastal plateau, an archipelago fjord below — Bohuslän granite at sunset

A loaded bikepacking bike leaning against a mossy stone wall among birches — Stone walls and birches — touring Sweden by bike

A still lake mirroring autumn-gold birches and a dramatic cloud bank — October, a lake holding its breath

The Golden Gate Bridge with fog rolling over the far tower — Fog beating the Golden Gate, as usual

The Transamerica Pyramid disappearing into fog behind a California flag — San Francisco, dressed for the weather

A pink cottage with a flower wall and a vintage yellow pickup truck — Venice side streets