Archipalego

So a military attaché, a philosopher, and a couple writers went out on a boat . . .

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, and maybe it was, but I assure you it actually happened.

Friend of the blog Marcus Prest (author of Android, etc.) has been playing host to us in Turku for the last several days, and the other day I was taken out into Finland’s gorgeous Archipalego Sea in a boat belonging to Marcus’ rather piratical friend Bjorn.

This is Bjorn.  He’s just a little bit outgoing.

After a cruise of three hours we arrived at Bjorn’s lovely little island, where we heated up the sauna.   So we went sauna, jumped into the Baltic, went sauna some more, jumped into the sea some more.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Then we cooked weenies over a wood fire and drank beer.  Actually we’d been drinking beer right from the start.

Along with Marcus, Bjorn, and myself, the party consisted of Joel, a professional philosopher, and Glen, colonel Royal Artillery (ret.), former attaché, now a freelance consultant working in Ukraine.

So along with the sauna and the beer and the sights, there was some fascinating high-level conversation going on involving current events in eastern and northern Europe, epistemological discourse, literature, and Taos Toolbox (of course).

All of which I’d love to tell you about, but I don’t have the time.  Maybe if we end up in the same sauna some day.

I reget I’m not writing Dagmar Shaw novels at present, because all that stuff from Glen could have made up at least a couple of them.

I’d like to thank Marcus, Bjorn, and his extraordinary crew for an extraordinary, lovely, unforgettable day.