My Walk this Week 217 – An Evening on the Marshes

Posted on 24/07/202022/07/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is back on my local salt marshes where the evening was still and the midges were out in their millions.

I went down there for the sunset and then had my back turned, recording sound, when it actually dipped below the horizon.

It was a still evening and there were not many birds singing but as always in this environment, there are gates – specifically four, but there were more people using them than just myself. I have included four in the soundscape but had I included all the instances of use on this short walk there would have been the sound of at least ten!

I understand and accept that by now you may think me obsessed with gates, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. Aside from the individual audio characteristics they have which I enjoy, they are symbolic of so much. They are way markers, milestones, entrances and exits simultaneously, thresholds, limitations, invitations – and they come in so many designs!

There is a bird that appears in the recording at about 01:10 – it was in the woods at the edge of the marsh but I do not know what it is. If anyone can tell me, I would be pleased to know. The Covid-eased traffic is ever present on the motorway but I have focused more on the other sounds in the trees and on the marshes.

Marshes Evening Soundscape

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second gate

across the salt marshes

marsh grasses

light reflections

midges

fotbridge with gates

marsh wildflowers

tall marsh grasses

footpath route

sunset

silhouettes

evening light

calm river

rosebay willow herb

pond at dusk

My Walk this Week 212 – Back Through the Park Again

Posted on 19/06/202018/06/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week revisits a walk taken in our local park in June two years ago. There have been some changes to the park in that time, but I was focusing on the natural growth then, just as I do now.

The last two photos in the sequence below were in fact taken in April and then June this year and show the stump of a tree in the middle of the footpath through the woods. The stump of the cut tree clearly refused to die and the photo from June demonstrates its determination to live and thrive again.

The recording I made two years ago, of a song thrush in the woods has not lost any of its beauty for me, so although I do not have a soundscape from June this year, I have enjoyed listening to this again and I hope you will too.

Song Thrush in the Woods

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footpath

park exit

Lavender

wildflowers against the sun

open park

oak wood

clover

grass seed

empty pond

Song thrush

bracken undergrowth

where the bluebells used to be

squirrel on oak tree

spot the squirrel

yellow flag

Wildflowers in the park

wildflower remnant

Swings together

playground through the trees

new growth, April 2020

new growth, June 2020

My Walk this Week 210 – Covid Walk on the Salt Marsh

Posted on 05/06/202002/06/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week on my local salt marsh, during the Covid lock down, was different to usual. In relative terms, the footpath felt as busy as the M4 motorway which seems to have returned almost to its normal level of traffic.

If you look carefully at the image above you can see the “crowds” in the distance. Without wanting to be too sarcastic, I should mention that there were various other families, couples and individuals using the riverside footpath. As I am used to meeting no more than one other person at most, it felt crowded to me and I veered away from my intended destination of the “church(yard) on the marshes”.

Sound levels may be returning to pre-Covid-19 levels in this area but that includes the birds as well as everything else. Just as the ambient decibels increase, so does the bird song – and there is still the beautiful sound of the wind blowing through the tall marsh grass.

Marshes Covid Walk Soundscape

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sheltering sheep

new fence

entrance to salt marsh

salt marsh

wildflowers

marsh wild flowers

yellow flags

cow parsley

marsh grasses

first footbridge

marsh textures

marsh textures 2

marsh footpath

River Loughor

salt marsh crowds

cracking

lifted foot bridge

distorting growth

marsh ditch

More marsh crowds

Marsh return

My Walk this Week 208 – Compare and Contrast

Posted on 22/05/202021/05/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is green and luscious and through something of a swamp! It is one I have only done once before and that was during an icy winter, so I wanted to compare and contrast the two seasons.

I don’t think I need to say much about the differences as they can be seen in the galleries below, but one of the most interesting to me is the is the water surface in the swamp/pond. In winter it was covered in thick, dark, opaque ice with a dusting of snow while on this more recent walk it is covered in thousands of catkins and algae.

The soundscapes are different as well, and again, I don’t think I need say much. The strange “groaning” sound in the Spring soundscape may be a distant goods train as there is a railway track nearby, but I cannot be certain.

Gorseinon Walk Soundscape and Images

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Afon Llan

green walk

greenery

rhododendrons

wildflowers

last of the bluebells

wildflowers 2

hawthorn

urban woodland footpath

swamp pond surface

catkins on surface

water droplets

swamp surface

cat

lush green

gate

woodland stream

wildflowers 3

woodland exit

gate perspective

gate surface rust

Afon Llan 2

Winter Walk Soundscape and Images

Afon Llan

Afon Dulais ice

solid ice

frozen

frozen woodland bog

Frozen surface

urban footpath

My Walk this Week 207 – Cefn Drum Lower Slopes

Posted on 15/05/202014/05/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is a warm Springtime walk to the lower slopes of Cefn Drum (pronounced Kevn Drim). I didn’t have time to go further but it was still a most enjoyable and much needed relaxing and therapeutic hour.

The weather is cooler now (my walk was taken two weeks ago) but the road verges are still looking as beautiful as ever. I have a suspicion that the County Council has delayed much of the cutting and trimming they do each year – either that or the climate over the past year has, for all its ups and downs, produced a bumper crop of wildflowers . . .

. . . or perhaps nature is just taking full advantage of not so many humans being around as a result of the Covid-19 lock down!

The birds were singing, the insects buzzing and true to their name, the mayflies were flying above the river in unbelievable numbers. You’ll have to trust me on that one because, unfortunately, I didn’t get a photograph.

Cefn Drum Soundscape

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My Walk this Week 204 – A Wander in the Park

Posted on 24/04/202020/04/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week takes a wander through our local park – Coedbach Park. Along with other parks in the county of Swansea were closed for a few days once the Covid-19 lockdown started, but eh council were good enough to open them again quite quickly. It would have been a great shame not to see it Spring development.

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and I made the time for a stroll through the park – I thought I might see the ducklings my daughter had reported to me. Alas, I was only able to enjoy the spectacular blooming of the trees near the entrance and the woodland wildflowers, garlic, wood anemone and bluebells, the crooked oak trees and the sounds of the birds – poor me 😉Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 200 – Overlooking the Landscape from Paxton’s Tower

Posted on 27/03/202024/03/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week was in a location carefully selected to not have many other people around – Paxton’s Tower in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Please remember that these blog posts are not intended to prompt you to go out during this difficult time with the Coronavirus, but rather to bring the outside in and hopefully help with some of the difficulties of confinement. For more free StillWalks® resources visit my previous post.

It was a beautiful day and the views from the hill on top of which Paxton’s Tower sits were also beautiful. The photos below look in all geographical directions as well as up at and up in the tower. There are some details too – signs of Spring and the patterns and textures of the full cycle of life.

Can you see the horned creature leaping out of the dead tree? Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 196 – Woodland Wander

Posted on 28/02/202027/02/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is a wander through woodland I have not visited for some time and it was good to see that whilst there had been developments and changes made, the character of the place remained as I remembered it.

Penllergaer Valley Woods is wonderful place on the outskirts of Swansea that I have enjoyed immensely at different times of the year. One of my favourite visits was about 4:30 AM for an early morning StillWalks production walk in Spring, but I have made StillWalks videos there from all seasons.

My visit on this occasion was a short one but I still very much enjoyed the patterns, textures, colours and sounds to be found there. I think my favourites below are the various tree stumps and the mass of bare birch branches on either side of the footpath as it descends to to the valley floor.