If you have already seen this image on Instagram or Facebook of a sudden and unexpected sunset at the end of my Aberystwyth amble, then you can enjoy it again here. I was sitting in my car eating sandwiches before my two hour drive home and when I turned my head to look out to sea, this is what I saw. I immediately jumped out of the car and grabbed my camera from the boot – a good job I was quick too as a minute later the sun had disappeared again.Continue reading
The seafront architecture of Victorian times in Welsh or British towns is very different to that enjoyed(?) by visitors to seaside resorts on the mediterranean coast and many other places these days. The repeating patterns of what once were hotels and B & Bs, many of which are now student accommodation, is still attractive to visitors and to my mind somewhat less vulgar than the repeated tower blocks lining a modern seafront. But the point of this accommodation in both current and bygone eras was to be affordable for the masses and the relative price of package holidays to beaches around the world reflects this.Continue reading
Walking along the upper footpath on the western edge of Penllergare Valley Woods, you can find (if you look) an area dramatic rock faces towering above the woodland floor. My first photo today was taken on my iPhone and reveals the structure and patterns in the rock.
The structure in the rock is obviously natural, but whether it is natural that these patterns have been revealed, I cannot say. I wonder about it because so many features of the valley were designed by John Dillwyn Llewellyn during Victorian times and it is entirely possible that the drama of the feature was intended.
Either way, nature has entirely taken over now and although there are more rock faces to be seen than I have shown here, the more the season moves on, the more the greenery tries to hide them.
On this upper footpath the distant sounds of Swansea and other signs of man can be heard more easily in the background than on the sound clip I posted on Monday at the start of this week’s walk. That piece of field recording was made near the valley floor which is shielded from the urban influence.
But the sounds of an urban environment can come and go according to the lie of the land in your immediate surroundings. Sometimes the background soundscape can be hidden by features like this enclave of rocks, while at other times the rocks themselves may reflect those sounds back to you. So much depends on the atmospheric circumstances prevailing at the time of listening.
Penllergare Woodland Sounds
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