Uplands landscape

Punctuated By Ice at The Waterside

My walk this week has been around the lake at The Waterside – Felindre and seems to have been punctuated by ice. Indeed, the whole language and grammar of the posts has been dictated by the freezing icy conditions.

Icy Punctuation

Influenced as I am by the things I see and hear around me, I look at the light and shade, the patterns and textures, and I wonder what it would feel like to touch, to run my fingers along some of the surfaces of frozen water, hard ground lightly dusted with snow or old reeds and rushes from last year as they poke through the semi opaque sometimes mushy lookingContinue reading

Icy grass skirt

Clothes of Ice

The top end of the lake round which I walked last week seemed to be wearing a range of icy clothes. I suppose I might be forcing it a bit, but the idea came to mind when I took the shot below and thought this rock in the stream had a flouncy skirt look about it.

Flouncy ice

And then I saw the submerged half frozen grass at the edge of the silt pond and thought “Wow! What great effect.”

The last two shots in this short sequence are clearly not references to clothing,Continue reading

water freeze

My Walk this Week – Icy Textures

My walk this week is another cold one around the lake at The Waterside – Felindre. It was very icy and the range of textures within that ice was fascinating. We had been led to believe there would be snow but as you can see, the forecasts were wrong for this little pocket of the country and a light dusting was all we got.

The Waterside in Winter

This was another short walk as my hands felt as though they would fall off with the cold and it was only a new pair of gloves knitted by my daughter that allowed me take the photos. Taking a close look at the various ice formations revealedContinue reading

NBGW lake

My Walk this Week – Landscape Ageing and Restoration

My walk this week is from the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW), though it turned out not to be the walk we had expected as the Pont Felin Gat woodland was closed off to the public for clearance / restoration work. The images show one of the existing lakes in the gardens as well as the site of another lake from the past. This is being restored but in the meantime the landscape of tree stumps creates some fascinating patterns, textures and colours.

So we followed the “blue” walk instead and climbed past old farm buildings which also look in need of restoration. Again, the colours, patterns and textures revealedContinue reading

Waterside footbridge

Lingering Around the Lake

Lingering around the lake at The Waterside is a very easy thing to do. On my walk this week the weather was good – sunny and almost still with just the lightest of breezes from time to time.

reed island

A walk here is more about wellbeing than exercise and whatever the weather conditions, there is huge advantage to be gained from a quiet contemplation of the place and the space.Continue reading

Water at The Waterside

My Walk this Week – Water at The Waterside

My walk this week is somewhere I visit regularly. The first Friday of the month I go to The Waterside, Felindre where Sue and Steve Heatherington welcome all who come along for creative conversation. Sue has also been posting about water in the valley this past week at Sue Waterside!

Waterside Details-5

You never know who you are going to meet but there are often faces I have become familiar with over the last couple of years. The conversation is often philosophical but also casual and so it is easy to talk. The place itself helps to prompt this and alongside Sue and Steve’s hospitality and their entertaining alpacas (yes, that’s right, alpacas!), this secluded Welsh valley is a fantastic place, whatever the weather, to clear the mind, explore and develop new thoughts and ideas and take a contemplative walk around the lake.Continue reading

Dark Park Railings

From Light to Dark – Reviewing the Walk

My walk this week took me from light to dark in Brynmill Park in Swansea. I had visited the park on many previous occasions and so was interested in capturing some of the details of the place rather than a more open view of its land and waterscape.

It was good to start my short walk in the afternoon sunlight and watch the squirrels gathering their winter stores and the swans and ducks on the dark water of the lake, even though there was the most terrific fight between two of the ducks (not included in the soundscape below).Continue reading

Dark Park Pattern

Dark Park

Looking at and photographing Brynmill Park on my walk this week was a most interesting challenge. While my walk had started in sunlight, by the time the walking forum meeting I was there to attend finished, the light was fading fast and making for an increasingly dark park.

So none of these images are under-exposed – it was dark, but not so much so that my surroundings could not be seen. The complexity of form was flattened as the intricacy ofContinue reading