These strange egg like objects are of course dockland floats. It looks as though it is some time since they were used and they look almost like pieces of abstract public art as they lie there between the marina and the docks. If they were eggs, I wonder what their mother would look like?
I assume that the piles of rusty and discarded objects we found collected together in Swansea Marina / Docks on a recent Walk and Draw (see previous post), were there deliberately and that their ultimate destination will be a scrap yard.
I have no idea what these objects are but it can be fascinating fun looking through all the strange forms and wondering.
This is not the first photograph I have posted of sheep wool caught on a fence but I find it strangely attractive, at least in the sense that whenever I see it, I have the urge to take a photograph. I suspect the slimy green drapery is the result of the stream in the woods behind the fence being in spate at another time of year, or perhaps it, too, came off the sheep’s back.
Can wild flower varieties be called wild flowers if they have been planted by man?
In the last couple of years Swansea has been allowing various roadside verges and common areas of land to grow unhindered by grass cutting and has thrown a range wild flower seeds into the mix with a view to promoting biodiversity (and perhaps saving some money at the same time).
The results have been widely popular and most people have thoroughly enjoyed seeing these jewels by the roadside. The birds and the bees like it too, I suspect!
I reckon that trees around or near any building enhances our visual perception of the urban environment. More than this, they also provide an invaluable means of protecting us from some of the pollution we put into the air. Particulates get trapped by the leaves and are then washed off to ground level by rain. And, of course, they absorb carbon dioxide provide us with oxygen.
Trees on the street in front of your house can make a significant difference to the quality of air you breath inside your home.
The trees in the first photo will not make a significant difference to the air that the inhabitants of the new buildings near Park Tawe in Swansea because, as can be seen from the depth of field in the image, the trees are not all that close to the buildings. The trees around BT’s tower block will be more effective in that respect.
City planners and architects should to take all the benefits that trees can bring into consideration when designing any and all new urban developments.
The mouth of the River Lliw is near Loughor on the Loughor Estuary in South Wales. Its width is obviously significantly greater here than at its source and as a consequence, the children of Felindre Primary School could only estimate the width and the depth.
The flow rate of the river could still be measured and this was done by throwing a piece of orange peel into the water and timing it between two points on the river bank. This and much more information will be included in the teaching and learning resource that I will be helping to produce as a part of the Clear Streams project managed by Swansea’s Countryside Connections team.
The route of the River Lliw, from its source in the hills (see other posts this week) to its mouth in the Loughor Estuary, passes through Gorseinon. Here the children from Felindre Primary School are measuring the depth and width of the river as part of the Clear Streams project.
In time they and other schools will be involved in the project, will be making further investigations into the environment of the river from mouth to source to help develop understanding of the benefits of keeping our rivers and streams clean.
