trees in sunlight

My Walk this Week 234 – The Park Through My Viewfinder

My walk this week looks through my viewfinder at our local park and its pond – Coedbach Park. Coed = wood and Bach = little, so Little Wood Park.

The video above of the pond and the images below were all taken on my DSLR, my “proper” camera, rather than my iPhone which I have used so often lately for my posts. I may have expressed some frustration with the iPhone images but I wouldn’t complain about the quality of the video it takes. The audio was recorded separately on my Zoom H5N recorder.

It was a walk taken at an opportune moment during a busy week when the sun was a rare sight. One advantage of working from home (for many more of us now) is that you can often be flexible with the hours you put in. I would argue that it is important both for yourself and your employer (if you have one) that the health benefits of taking a break for a short walk round your local park, or even just around your garden (again, if you have one), are such that it is invaluable to all – yourself, the people you work for, the people around you. everyone in fact.

I wonder if there is any chance in the future, in the “new normal” as it is being called, that a recognition of the benefits to be gained from activities such as this will become a strategic part of business models and company operations. We can always hope!

early evening sunlight

My Walk this Week 231 – Going With the Flow

My walk this week is necessarily another local one and is going with the flow in more ways than one.

The literal flow is in the Afon Camffrwd, a small local river swollen somewhat by the recent rains. A more existential flow is about me taking the walk in the first place.

Near the end of another day of regular showers the need to get out and calm my mind, exercise my body and enjoy my surroundings was obvious to me. We have to accept and deal with the current pandemic situation as best we can. While I am able to continue my work in tapestry weaving and sound as a result of a stabilisation grant from the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes fund, I am still affected, along with everyone else, by the Covid-19 lockdown and the restrictions that go with it. It is a strange and unsettling experience for us all.

Again the soundscape for this walk is in the form of a short video, but there are some more details from my walk in the images below.

 

 

beads on feather

My Walk this Week 130 – Damp Autumn Walk

My walk this week is on a damp Autumn morning. You can’t see it in these photos but the valley was full of mist and the clouds low overhead. The seasons are changing and while bright sunny days can be the most enjoyable, there is also a fantastic range of beauty to be experienced on damp days like this.

Autumn Beeches

The geese and ducks were clearly enjoying the water both in the air and under them and the dampness did not take away the crunchiness of fresh fallen Autumn leaves underfoot. The light, however, was dim and it is that more than anything else that makes a sunny day enjoyable.Continue reading

Gate to Garden of Remembrance

Garden of Remembrance

My walk this week around Bath took me from the Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens over the road and into Henrietta Park where I found a Garden of Remembrance.

Garden of Remembrance

I was encouraged to walk in the direction of the garden by the sound of people opening and closing the metal gate. I couldn’t see it but with my love of gates and the range of sounds they make, it was too strong a temptation to resistContinue reading

Natural Tunnel

The path is still straight on my walk this week though there was one long bend before reaching this natural tunnel. It would be darker in the spring and summer but with the leaves on the ground rather than on the trees, it is no less beautiful and having moved away from the working urban environment there is also less aural evidence of man. The motorway is only a few hundred yards from this tree tunnel but the prevailing wind direction carries the sound away and so it can hardly be heard at all.

tree tunnel

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Under an October Sky – Walking in the Forest

October is often the wettest month for us here in Wales but whether the cloudscape below is evidence of this I could not say – I simply found it an interesting arrangement. In reality the weather conditions these days are seemingly so erratic, it is sometimes difficult to know which season we are in or what month it is. It is not easy to tell from these photos or the sound clip if the weather on my forest walks in October were wet or not.

October sky

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Urban Lakeside Visitors – Reviewing the Walk

Returning to the carpark at the end of my walk this week around the urban lake in the enterprise zone at Llansamlet in Swansea, I was met by one of the lake’s inhabitants! Knowing the reputation for swans being not entirely friendly towards humans, I was slightly cautious when approaching him – but he wasn’t the least bit concerned about me or anyone else!

Urban Lakeside Swan

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