My walk this week is a version of one I do regularly. I have posted any number of images and sounds from this walk which features some local woodland, but on this occasion I took several video clips as well. So my posts this week will end not with the normal field recording soundscape, but with a video compiled from the clips recorded on my iPhone which obviously include the sounds of the walk. Apologies for any wobbles.
Arriving at The Waterside on my walk this week, the rain was coming down but I had managed to do my photography and field recording mostly without it. I was met by a couple of curious alpacas who were also getting wet but as they and I were reasonably protected by suitable clothing, it was not a big problem.
Not only did I enjoy my walk, I then followed it up with good company and a productive day’s creative conversation at The Waterside.
Nearing The Waterside on my walk this week I have arrived at the cascade construction down which the water from a bygone reservoir tumbles and flows. Emerging from a tunnel which would once have been below a dam wall the river flows through the woodland valley on its route down to join the River Lliw.
The Afon Lliw starts in the same area – the uplands north of Swansea known as The Mawr – and is a part of our locality that I love. I produced video of a project a couple of years ago where local school children followed and researched the Lliw from source to sea – you can see the various video chapters here.
Moving on up the lane approaching The Waterside on my walk this week the winter bareness of the trees revealed the natural fractal growth of their branches against the sky. This first image can also be see in full black and white on Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness MM 3-41 blog post.
My walk this week is at a place I have walked at and posted about on a few occasions but until now I have not taken a closer look (and listen) at the the approach to the The Waterside.
Starting just above the school, the lane that leads up to the lakeside where the facilities are in which creative thinking can take place, the wooded valley, while bare of leaves at this time of year, is still green with moss and the damp atmosphere on a day heavy and dark with rain.
Returning to my starting point in my local park on my walk this week, I had a last glimpse of the marshes on the Loughor Estuary. The light was still strong as there was not a cloud to be seen and the air was clear.
Reviewing the walk, I am reminded that although I have called it the Castell Ddu Walk, the castle, or what remains of it does not feature in the images other than the related nearby motte situated at the side of the motorway. The link and quoted text below gives some information on the place.
My walk this week started in a local park, crossed frozen marshes, went under and over two railway bridges, crossed a motorway, fields and returned to the park. I saw automobiles on the motorway but no trains and only distant planes. However, I did record the somehow relaxing sound of a light aircraft and the sound of my footsteps on rock hard frozen, frosty fields – the soundscape will be posted tomorrow in my review of the walk.
Even though I know the context of this image I still thing the pattern of dancing morning sunlight on the railway bridge wall is deceptive. It looks as though the bridge may be crossing water, but in reality it is a pattern created by the shadows of tree branches next to the bridge and the relief texture of the stones with which it is built.
