…but with the occasional bursts of light. December is the month when winter really takes a grip.Most of the time it’s grey and overcast, but on some rare occasions the sun breaks through, clears the clouds, but barely makes it over the horizon. The shadows are long and the sun doesn’t warm, but the world lights up and sparkles. The blue-grey, ambient light that sucks the life out of everything is momentarily overpowered by golden glows and sharp contrasts that make your eyes burn like you’re seeing real daylight for the first time.

We spend a weekend on Ourst at the summer house by a warm fire. In the middle of the day we take a long walk along the forest roads and let Cooper run loose in the snow. He picks up scents of deer and moose and shoots off in amongst the trees, but he always returns. Don’t think he would do anything if he actually caught up with anything. Mostly it’s overcast but on Saturday the sun appears for a few hours before creeping back under the horizon. From the drone I can see how it makes the tree tops glow over the icy blue fields of Orust.

A big section of forest is being taken down and harvested. The machine works with ferocious effectiveness and the area is unrecognisable from when we walked past here only a week ago. It smells of pine wood.

Back in Göteborg we are invited to Jan and Anna for glögg and pepparkakor. Jan’s production of Meccano models keeps growing and gets more and more imaginative. I try to take som photos but they don’t them justice.

This weekend the temperature climbed to just over freezing and the snow started turning to slush. The air is humid again and the cold creeps right in to your marrow. The ice that had set over Sannegården starts to break up. It will probably freeze again later in the week when the temperature drops again. On the river an old ferry boat steams past with passengers enjoying a “julbord”. A lone Christmas tree on a jetty attempts to convey the Christmas spirit, but it feels more like loneliness.