a saturday in derbyshire & yorkshire

Last Saturday Liam and I decided to go somewhere pretty, and we're so close to it now that it's hard not to choose the Peak District. It was already past noon once we managed to get ourselves out of bed, and weekend breakfast still tends to take hours for us, so it became a short trip, but a good one.




We went to Edale




and to Castleton, and mainly spent time walking around looking at things. Turns out Edale is a good place to start longer walks, and I can't want to go back in the spring and take hikes. It's so close! It's so pretty!


Then we drove north to Huddersfield where Rosie and Marshal made Saag Paneer for dinner. SO GOOD.







And then obviously board game night. This time we played Betrayal at House on the Hill, which was brilliant once we got the hang of it - it's the kind of game that will get even better next time we play it. And then, of course, Codenames. Six months ago the picture version was too hard for me, I felt I didn't have enough descriptive words. Not anymore. <3

I just said to Liam the other day that I feel so lucky to be here. To just take these daytrips and see things and talk about things and breathe them in. I get to experience all these places and sayings, views and accents, traditions and surprises. I thought that the UK would be so similar to Sweden, but it's all so different! And I wouldn't have known if I didn't have this access to the culture that I have now. Coming here as a tourist before, I didn't feel it was all that different. But once i started scrathing the surface, it's all surprising. Some of it annoys me to no end. Some of it I find immensely beautiful. And it's all interesting. The buildings are different, the landscape! I love it!, small talk is different, the hidden meanings behind words are different, politics, newspapers, fashion, trends, food, it's all different. And I just want to be here and experience it all.

Led Zeppelin | Bron-Yr-Aur

best of 2018: portraits

Just like last year, I wanted to do a little summary of my year in photography, in a few installments; here's part 1, the portraits. I can't get enough of photographing the beautiful people in my life, and I feel honoured that they let me. In chronological order:


Julia, at the Twelth Night Ball at the Opera.


Liam, at home in his kitchen in Chester, the first time I visited


and then again in March in the same kitchen. Yes, there is going to be a lot of Liam in this blog post. I like his face.


Virginia, at the Blues Experiment, Outer Banks, NC.


Nikola & Robert at Stockholm Blues Fest.


Gustav and Anna, swimming in late May.


Paul and Marianne at Liseberg.


Gustav and Anna in Amsterdam.


Liam, Friday night grocery shopping. :)


Georgie at a café in the Northern Quarter.


Anna after dinner at Mañana in the summer.


Carro at a July birthday party.





Solveig and Anders on their wedding day at Omberg.


Cat, in Liverpool.


Karin, Karin and Tove at Andra Långgatan, Göteborg.


Johan and Gabriel in their living room.


Late night at Dig Deeper - what can I say? :)


Dan Repsch in Göteborg.


Liam at Edinburgh Lindy Exchange.


Anna, in Göteborg.


Fredrik, with an Elderflower Sour, at my birthday party.


Liam, at Llyn Idwal, Wales.


Lisa, in Göteborg.


Liam at Blues in the Hudd.


Survivor's photo from Blues in the Hudd - one of my favourite group photos I've ever taken, and I'm still delighted that everyone went with my idea with the fairy lights. :)


Johan and Gabriel at Botaniska Trädgården.


Rachel, at a Christmas ball in Lancaster.


Anne and Liam on Christmas Eve morning.


Isobel at the Snowball.


Liam, on New Year's Eve in Göteborg; the best ending to this beautiful magical year I could have wished for.

Edgar Meyer | Short Trip Home

birmingham swing festival

Birmingham Swing Festival! I had such a great experience! I was in the balboa stream and learned a lot in class; I danced a whole bunch of lindy in the evenings and regained a tiny bit of confidence in my lindy, I made finals in the lindy mix and match and did really well (!!!), I had lovely chats and hugs with friends. All in all, it was pretty much everything I want from a dance weekender. And this is what it looks like in my notebook. (Please note: I didn't design their beautiful logo, I just drew it in my notebook because I like it so much.)

I took two photos the entire weekend. Not even joking. I was really photo tired this week, and if it's one thing I know it's to allow myself to take breaks from photography if I'm not working and I'm not feeling it. I felt like dancing! So that's what I did.


I took this one of Georgie and Liam hugging on Saturday morning. <3


And this one from a great class with Sanna and Adam.

However! Georgie was the official photographer and as always, she did some absolutely stunning work. Not only did she capture the vibe of the festival beautifully (see her blog post here), there are also plenty of photos with me in them! That is so unusual, since I'm so often the one behind the camera. I'm delighted! Also, a good way to get photos of yourself is always to enter the comps, isn't it? :)

So here's what I looked like at this festival:


This is from the balboa prelims, I had a lovely dance with Josep.


And this is how pleased and delighted I was to be paired with Max in the lindy prelims. :)



Me and Vytas in the lindy finals!!! (Several people said after that they could see my blues dancing shining through. LIFE GOALS! to have my lindy influenced by my blues dancing, and honour the roots of swing in that way. Also, the song they gave us for our spotlight was a proper, swinging 12 bar blues! What else was I to do? :)


I also look like this when I'm dancing. I actually think this photo is probably more accurate than the others. :)


Vytas and I placed second and I'm so pleased and proud! (And yes, Liam won. As usual. He always wins.)

The video from the finals is here if you want to see it and my spotlight starts at 1:42.


Also, this one, just because you can tell immediately from my RIDICULOUS FACE that I'm dancing with the love of my life.

Thanks Birmingham! See you next year. :)

Jimmy Witherspoon | Call My Baby