It’s getting darker. It’s getting colder. Melancholia is a Swedish trait born of lack of daylight and long, cold winters. It’s overwhelming and there is no escape, no cure, no way to avoid it. The best strategy is to embrace it, to immerse yourself in it, to light a fire, to withdraw and hide in it. On the weekends it’s possible. Here at the summer house on Orust, on the west coast of Sweden, on the northern outskirts of Europe I can wallow in my introverted thoughts in solitude.

It’s not all bad. Nature puts on a magnificent show when the leaves turn and the sky fills with drama. It is just as beautiful every time…