Ice Cold Frosty Walk

The route of my walk this week took me around the back of working buildings in Penclawdd on the North Gower coast. Although it was bitterly cold in this area shaded from the sun and the beautiful views across the salt marsh were obscured, there were still fascinating finds to be made. I guess they are everyday things at this time of year – frosty grass, icy pools and so on – but looking at the patterns the cold weather creates and the colours affected by the light on this day, I found there were any number of things to record, both sights and sounds.

frosty grass

Penclawdd at Work

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Wild Weather Walkers and Reviewing the Week 46

Reaching the end of my wild and windy walk between Southgate and Three Cliffs on the South Gower coast, like these other two intrepid weather walkers, I was huddled over and protecting my camera against the rain.

I have not created a full StillWalks video of this walk using a mixture of still images and video because I am not a great fan of hand held video and I have not had the time. However, the sequence of photos and the sound clip below can be viewed at the same time and if you are interested in the video I took on my iPhone during the walk, this can also be viewed at the end of this post.

Mixing video and stills is something I will continue to experiment with for StillWalks and if I can find the time I will probably work further with this walk in this way. In the meantime I hope you can enjoy all that I have posted this week and don’t end up too breathless or blown off your seat!

walkers

Wild Wind

If viewing this in an email, to view the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

When playing the video I recommend you click the HD and full screen buttons.

Drawing in the style of . . .

My project work earlier this year with the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru involved using iPads for drawing. I was interested in using the iPad again on the art walk I went on recently but on this occasion challenged myself to use a much broader “pencil”.

I had asked some of the children on the Josef Herman project to do this in order to emulate Herman’s style more closely. For myself,  I thought that it might help me to find a way of working with the iPad that I felt was more suited to the characteristics of  the implement.

However, I think I would have to do a lot more in this way to achieve a better degree of comfort with the iPad as a tool for drawing. As I will be returning it to its owner very soon, this is not likely to happen. It’s a good job that real paper and pencil / charcoal is lot cheaper!

cranes iPad drawing

 

cranes iPad drawing

sketch

Sounds of Swansea Bay Cycle Path

For all the years I have lived near Swansea, I have never walked the full length of the cycle/footpath from Swansea to Mumbles, just different parts of it at different times.

The path runs along the top of the beach from Swansea’s maritime quarter right round to Mumbles Lifeboat Station. On the other side is Oystermouth Road, a busy road along which tourists must drive as well as locals to reach the Gower Peninsula, one of Wales’ most popular areas and was designated as the UK’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956.

Despite the proximity of Oystermouth Road, the sound clips I recorded recently might suggest that the road is much further away than it is. There was plenty of traffic on it at the time but the light breeze was blowing away from the cycle/footpath and so even for my iPhone, this was not the predominant sound.

Swansea Cycle Path 1

Swansea Bay Cycle Path

Swansea Bay Cycle Path

Swansea Bay Cycle Path

That Early Morning Light

The angle of light on the stones on this beach proves the walk I had that morning in Galloway, SW Scotland really was not long after sunrise.

Stone on the Beach

Filtered Out – Not Overflowing

Images that didn’t make it into the Autumn Reservoir Walk I recently produced. It wasn’t that I was un happy with the composition or quality of the images – they were just not essential in describing the walk around the reservoir.

reservoir overflow

reservoir overflow

Walks, Walking and Wilderness

I am always on the lookout for new walks.

Whether it be the natural or man made environment, I try to keep my eyes and ears open for interesting things or a way to look at something that makes it interesting.

These photos are from a short exploratory walk I did recently when, driving along a small country road through what felt like a complete wilderness, I passed a “footpath” sign. These signs always make me want to stop immediately and take a closer look at the route to which they point.

On this occasion it was easy for me to stop and park the car off the road and grab my cameras. I wasn’t able to go very far on this occasion but I will certainly be exploring the area more in the future. The location was near Cwm Cerdinen,  just over the mountain from where I live in South Wales.

Cwmcerdinen-6

This week’s featured StillWalks video is set a few weeks ahead of the current date in terms of the time of year but the flowers and activity of the birds celebrate the beautiful sunny weather of Spring with gusto and are a welcome change to the wild, wet and windy weather we had through Winter.

The video above is in 480p quality. You can use the Donate button below to pay however much you want and receive a high quality (720HD) download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Garden Park Walk – Spring” which features Clyne Gardens in Swansea, South Wales. Click the image above to watch the video. DVD Collections are also available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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Soggy Seeds

The woodland at Ynystawe through which I was walking last weekend really was wet! The day was nice but the rain from previous days had had its effect on the plants at the end of Summer.

The colours of flowers are on their way out and we have not yet reached that stage of Autumn that brings so much colour again in the leaves. But there is still pattern and texture and light (perhaps less of the light) – you just have to look around you 🙂

Ynystawe-9 Ynystawe-10 Ynystawe-12 Ynystawe-14

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