Tag Archives: Swansea Bay

mini shells

My Walk this Week 131 – Swansea Bay Shells

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The shells have it in my walk this week on the beach in Swansea Bay – big ones, little ones and multiply connected ones. A beautiful day and some much needed space – there would have been peace as well if it hadn’t been for a light aircraft performing aerobatics overhead. But that was quite an interesting sound, and anyway, as I walked down the beach the sound of the waves masked that in the sky. I’ll post the soundscape on Friday as usual.

multiple shells

One of the best things about Swansea Bay is the expanse of beach when the tide is out and that space was just what I wanted on this morning. There were plenty of other people about enjoying the sunshine and sand (and indeed the blue sky above), but none of that hemmed in any individual and everyone was able to wander the shore in relative solitude and enjoy it in their own way.Continue reading→

Queen Street Gallery

A New Centre of Art – Queen Street Gallery

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Recently I have been involved in the Queen Street Gallery,  a new gallery and the first of its kind in Neath. The gallery widens the reach of art in the Swansea Bay area and includes well established as well as emerging Welsh and international artists in different fields of practice.

Queen Street Gallery

Queen Street Gallery opened in June and is proving a popular addition to the centre of Neath. Just down the road from the train station, it is an easy place to get to and has its latest exhibition opening tonight from 6 – 8pm (Friday 7th September 2018). Carole and Peter Evans have a retrospective exhibition of their painting – closely observed cameos of everyday life. Both Carole and Peter were born in Neath and both have exhibited throughout Wales, London and The Cotswolds.

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Sea lines

Light and Lines

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By the end of my walk this week on Aberavon Beach the light had brightened to the point of dazzlement. We didn’t have a blue sky but the sunlight was bleaching in its brightness and the heat was clearly making a dip in the sea an attractive option for many.

a day on the beach

Having walked the length of the beach, we turned around and walked back along the promenade where I found myself noticing some of the lines and anglesContinue reading→

Enjoying the sunshine

My Walk this Week – An Angle On the Beach

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My walk this week is along Aberavon Beach on the eastern side of Swansea Bay. It was warm but overcast when we started out and I suppose that might account for the clothing that one of these beach anglers was wearing.

anglers angling

The sun soon showed up, however, and justified the clothing of the others on the beach as well as their activities.

Aberavon has an expansive and beautiful beach but it is slightly strange to see mechanical monsters seemingly so close on the skyline.Continue reading→

Squall

Herded by Cows and a Squall

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At the start of my walk this week I mentioned my caution regarding cows and how I cut off across the top of the hill to avoid them. But they were having none of that and following a sudden squall of hailstones I was persuaded yet again to take an alternative route back down the hill.

cows

The fast changing weather provided me with a range of lighting effects and I found myself blinded by the light one moment and then wowed by the hailing clouds over Swansea Bay the next. It was still very cold and although this wasn’t a long walk,Continue reading→

Lichen

Lichen and a Dry Stone Wall

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Sheltering unsuccessfully from the bitter winter wind by a dry stone wall on the Swansea uplands I took a moment to admire the lichen and thought about how it looks as though someone has illustrated it in pen and ink.

lichen on dry stone wall

I had been persuaded by a herd of cows to cut across the top of Mynydd Gelli instead of circumnavigating it at a lower contour.Continue reading→

Grass in the Bay

Natural and Man-Made

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My walk this week took me through Swansea University’s Bay Campus to the open view it has of the expansive Swansea Bay. The combination of the natural and man-made had a number of crossover points – one of these was how cold it was with the wind chill coming off the sea, exposed as I was both in the open and amongst the buildings.

Beach Perspective

Other overlaps of the natural and man made came in the birdlife and young trees planted around the buildings, the moat-like sea defences (I suspect that, one day, these will not be enough), the rusting structure of an old disused outlet pipe onto the beach, and the industrial view looking east to Port Talbot.Continue reading→

fence perspective

My Walk this Week – An Angle on Nature and Construction

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My walk this week was slightly unexpected. I had gone to explore the docks area in Swansea Bay but found no access due to gates and security fencing. However, as I moved on I found a footpath edging a part of Swansea University Bay Campus still under construction. On one side of the path I enjoyed the effect of perspective on the site fence, while on the other the textures I found in the bare nature of the season.

Winter nature

So while I had expected an industrial walk in the docks, instead I got a mixture of nature and man made construction. The nature was partly in the form of a bitterly cold wind for whichContinue reading→