Across the sands

My Walk this Week 242 – Sound Memories

My walk this week is from August  2020 when I was taking part in a Sound Memories project called Walk 19. I and three other sound recordists were invited to record the sounds of places described by elders in care homes to Cheryl Beer, project Lead Artist funded by The Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes and Founder and Director of Sound Memories Dementia Friendly Radio Station.

Burry Port 2

One of the places I visited was Burry Port on the Burry Inlet in Carmarthenshire. Some of the photos I took are below and the project soundscape that Cheryl produced from my audio clips can be found on the Walk 19 page of her website (see link above) along with all the others she made for the care homes she was working with.

Three Cliffs

My Walk this Week 223 – An Early Start

My walk this week returns to Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula and a production walk for VR video – this is just a snippet of the sights and sounds we recorded.

early morning light

Some of the images below are my own while a number of them were taken by my Co-Director at StillWalks®, Paul Allen.

NB I may not post for a couple of weeks after this as I will be away . . . but you never know!

Three Cliffs Early Soundscape

My Walk this Week 220 – Recce in the Sun

My walk this week was a recce in the sun for a VR walk that we will be producing at the earliest opportunity.

The walk was at Three Cliffs Bay on The Gower and it was hot! The “three cliffs” can be seen in the background of the image above but to see their real scale, please look through the images below.

I’m sorry I don’t have a soundscape for this walk, although the sound in a VR (virtual reality) walk will be very important and we will be paying close attention to it.

If this post looks different to usual, that is because it has been entirely produced on my phone using the WordPress app. All photos were also taken on my iPhone.

frosty grass

My Walk this Week 185 – Frost As It Was

My walk this week is again from three years ago, when it seems as though the weather was colder and there was thick frost on the ground – we haven’t really had that yet this year.

cold flowing water

The walk was in Penclawdd on the North Gower Peninsula and my selected images and soundscape below tell something of the atmosphere of the place as it looks out across the Loughor Estuary and Burry Inlet to Carmarthenshire.

The clear sky and open space is something I really appreciate at the moment, working indoors in a warehouse all the time as I am, and not seeing much daylight.Continue reading

coastal windblown tree

My Walk this Week 167 – Coastal Footpath and Windblown Wildflowers

My walk this week follows part of the South Gower coastal footpath along which we found so many different wildflowers. The day was bright and breezy and the sea twinkled in the sunlight as it crashed against the rugged rocks of the cliffs below us.

South Gower cliffs

Proof of the prevailing wind can be seen in the sculpted and stunted hawthorn tree standing on its own. The hillside was a forest of gorse growing thickly andContinue reading

heavy weather

My Walk this Week 161 – North Gower Walk

My walk this week looks back at a walk on the North Gower coast and the expansive and beautiful salt marshes of the Loughor Estuary. The walk was originally taken as part of the “Taste of Gower” project in 2015.

Salt marshes, North Gower

Sheep graze the marsh grass and herbs from day to day and when the tides cover the the greenery, they move on and off the marshes via “causeways” such as the one above.

The sense of space and the distortion of perspective gives the place a strange, unreal feeling. Distance is difficult to judge and I suspect you would need to be careful of the incoming tide if unused to the area.Continue reading

weather coming in

My Walk this Week 129 – Down from Rhossili Down

Climbing up the Down from the village of Rhossili on my walk this week at the end of the Gower Peninsula, was not a problem – it’s fairly steep but I like climbing. Less so do I like coming back down again and on this occasion my knees had decided they had had enough.

Rhossili Bay beach path

This has happened on one or two occasions when walking but I have never let it stop me. I do, however, need to pace myself and not go rushing off at the start of a walk. Descending from the Down four years ago is one of my clearest memories of the walk. Continue reading

Distant Down walkers

My Walk this Week 129 – Atop the Down

Looking at more pics from my archive of a walk on Rhossili Down four years ago takes me to the top of the Down where I met some Gower ponies as well as other people. The ponies are wild and there are many of them all over the Gower Peninsula moors and marshes. Strictly speaking, they must be (legally) owned by somebody these day but I’m not sure that makes any difference to anyone.

track in sunlight

I have left out many of the photographs I took that day only because the fifteen I have picked for my posts this week do a good job of feeding my memory and are sufficient to describe the place on a day like this one was – sun shining blindingly with a wind blowing up from the sea with the ridge of the Down providing an occasional and welcome respite from the bluster of it.Continue reading