Just days from winter solstice. This coming Friday the earth starts tilting the north pole back towards the sun again and the light will slowly return. This week, and the next, have the shortest days and the longest nights. It’s not made better by the thick blanket of cloud and fog weighing down on us. The temperature hovers just above zero and the air has a fine mist of moisture. The cold creeps into your marrow and you could easily spend the whole day under a warm quilt ,sleeping, waiting for the sun to come back, like a hibernating bear.

Best way is actually to go out and face it head on. Lucky we have Cooper. The weather doesn’t faze him. Any time is a good time for a sniff, cocking a leg and spreading your pheronomes. Every weekday morning we take walk up Slottsberget, a small, historic area of Lindholmen. The Christmas lights are in full bloom on trees, bushes and off balconies. Brightens things up.

On Saturday we take a walk around Oxsjön, a nature reserve in the south of Göteborg. It’s cold, wet and not quite daylight. It’s foggy and the ground icy. The ice on Oxsjön is melting but you can see traces of where people and animals have crossed it. It’s a refreshing walk but it’s even nicer to get home to a warm apartment again.

On Sunday the fog has turned to a misty rain and the wind has picked up. After a lazy morning we take a walk along the foreshore to Eriksberg with Cooper. A few people are braving the weather and strolling along the quay. There are people sitting in the cafés warming themselves with cups of tea or hot cappuccinos. There is a Santa crashed into a fence, and in towards town there is a lone Christmas tree on a pier. The apartment blocks are competing in who can put up the most LED lights. It’s nearly Christmas…