My Walk this Week 259 – Late Bluebells and Moss

Posted on 04/06/202103/06/2021 by Alastair

My walk this week is from Scotland where I was flabbergasted by the carpets of late bluebells and moss. Flabbergasted is not a word I use often but on this occasion it is well suited to the dismay I felt when walking in a local forest while on holiday. Being 300+ miles further north of home would account for the some of the delay in the timing of bluebells blooming, but the word was that they have been late everywhere because of the unseasonably cool weather this Spring.

The moss was less unexpected in a woodland like this but it delighted me none-the-less, especially the happy moss monster sitting at the side of the track I was ambling along. The images below take you along the route I followed but only give a glimpse of the carpets of flowers.

I find photographing bluebells difficult – trying to represent the awesome effect their multitude have on the human soul is a challenge I am happy enough not to meet as there can be no substitute for the real thing.

Witness to my enjoyment (and need!) of this walk were two of many local bulls and I stopped to have a wee chat with them as I headed back down the tree lined lane.

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 203 – Spring Garden

Posted on 17/04/202017/04/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week returns to our garden where Spring is in full flow with the birds singing and the colours spreading.

But there is a rare anomaly for me in this post! The images and soundscape are from different weeks with the audio being recorded one week earlier than the photos. This is very unusual for me but there is a reason for it. The recording was made while I was digging the first small vegetable patch and as I did so in the breezy sunshine, a blackbird sang his heart out in the trees behind me and it was such a joy to be doing this work to his and other birds accompaniment.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 197 – Garden Details

Posted on 06/03/202006/03/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week didn’t take me far – just into the garden to look at some of the details of change at this time of year. There is more than the plant life in the colours, textures and patterns there as well. 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.