Chapel Alley Fulford

Heading for Chapel Alley

My walk this week is a circular one and at this stage I am three quarters round the circle and heading back to Fulford and Chapel Alley. Fulford is on the edge of York City and the main street is busy with traffic going out to the ring road. So I was pleased on my previous walk along this route, to have found Chapel Alley as a short cut that took me away from the noise and fumes.

Fulford Road

If you can read the sign in image 4 then you will see where the Chapel Alley used to lead – but really, it’s pretty obvious! I liked the feel of the narrow alley,Continue reading

Bath City Centre

Bath – Reviewing the Walk

Bath Abbey sits, as you might expect, in the centre of the city. The Roman Baths are next to it and while I took a shot of the baths ceiling with its dome, I didn’t have the time to justify the cost of entry and I am sorry to say I didn’t go into the abbey either. So now I have an excellent excuse to revisit the place, and next time I will take my family – and if that’s not a good recommendation of the place, I don’t don’t what is!

Bath Abbey

So my original reason for going to Bath was to see the Contemporary Tapestry: Here and Now exhibition at the Holburne Museum. I was able to take a very enjoyable look at the city as well – its parks and architecture, its quiet and more noisy areas. On my home, prompted by my viewing of the tapestry exhibition,Continue reading

Mixed Media in Cardiff City

My walk this week featured a range of mixed media. From the natural mossy trees in perspective and their shadows on buildings to a classical architectural foreground with a more modernist tower in the background; the intricacy of sculptures and the simplicity of the structures within walls along with urban pedestrian functionality. It makes for quite a mixed bag and all to be seen within a hundred yards or so in the centre of Cardiff City.

Cardiff tree perspective

Continue reading

Perspective on Brutalist Architecture

My walk around Cardiff this week encompassed not only the classical cultural architecture of the National Museum and adjacent municipal buildings – it also included the brutalist concrete architecture of the University of Wales buildings situated in the same block. The area is interspersed with beautiful formal gardens but it is not this that I was focusing on during this walk – I also get great enjoyment from looking at the various patterns, textures and perspectives created by the architects.

University of Wales Cardiff

Continue reading

My Walk this Week – Culture, Classical and Concrete

My walk this week takes a tour around the classical and concrete block of cultural, educational and municipal buildings in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. Amgueddfa in Welsh or museum in English, this first image shows a segment of the display block alongside the National Museum of Wales which currently shows the banner for the Arts Mundi 7 exhibition. This is a biannual international art exhibition which we have seen since it started 14 years ago. The exhibition has one of the largest prizes in the art world (£40,000).

Started in Cardiff, it is a an event of which Wales can be justly proud. It ends in cardiff on 26th February and I will be trying to get to see it for a fourth time before that. John Akomfrah is the justifiable winner on this occasion but the whole exhibition, while being largely video based, is well worth giving the time to tour fully.

Amgueddfa / Museum

Continue reading

Carmarthen – Reviewing the Walk

Walking amongst the market stalls on my way back to the car park on my walk this week around Carmarthen town in South West Wales, the stall I found most interesting was the one displaying hats. I just missed catching a shot of a lady looking at her reflection in the mirror but like the shot anyway – the mannequin heads with their wooly hats looked really weird somehow, especially stuck on “spikes” along a metal bar almost as if they were trophies.

sign post

Continue reading

Town Texture, Carmarthen

The columns in front of the family courts building in the centre of Carmarthen where I have been walking this week, have texture and colour I particularly like. It looks to me as though the texture may not be from the stone that is used but from a surface addition of some sort. It doesn’t really matter to me, I just like it and took several photos. I selected two to post here and debated with myself whether or not to leave the blue of the shop behind the columns in the frame. I found that keeping it in helps both the perspective overall and also the focus on the texture and pattern of the second column.

Carmarthen columns

Monochrome Madness – A monochrome version of this image can be seen on Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post MM 3-40

Continue reading

Carmarthen Castle

My walk this week around Carmarthen took in the part of the castle. There is a lot more to the castle than I am showing here but you will not find these photos on Castles of Wales website. The images on the Castles of Wales site are clearly less recent than my own and do not show that there is now a metal spiral staircase rising to the room above the castle gate where this window is situated along with a flag pole which made a very noticeable sound in the wind.

Carmarthen Castle

Continue reading