My walk this week took me along a route I have often walked in the past, and in this post I am linking back to the time of Storm Doris in April 2017. My walks here, past present and future, start from the image below. This week I have included a selection of images from the walk taken in 2017 and then next week I will to post a version of my walk in the present time with links to a VR (virtual reality) version for future use.
On my walk in the present time I was using a GoPro Fusion 360 to take short VR video clips along the way.Continue reading→
My walk this week was in a location carefully selected to not have many other people around – Paxton’s Tower in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Please remember that these blog posts are not intended to prompt you to go out during this difficult time with the Coronavirus, but rather to bring the outside in and hopefully help with some of the difficulties of confinement. For more free StillWalks® resources visit my previous post.
It was a beautiful day and the views from the hill on top of which Paxton’s Tower sits were also beautiful. The photos below look in all geographical directions as well as up at and up in the tower. There are some details too – signs of Spring and the patterns and textures of the full cycle of life.
Can you see the horned creature leaping out of the dead tree? Continue reading→
My walk this week is another to my local salt marsh, this time during the tail end of Storm Ciara and the wind that was probably worse in other parts of the UK. All the same, we weren’t tempted to venture out in the wild weather.
When crossing the River Loughor on the motorway, I could see that the the tide was high and the marshes were getting there regular dose of salt. But by the time I got down there the sea had retreated and I was able to get to the river bank.
I loitered a bit amongst the trees at the edge of the marsh as the wind was strong and pretty cold and so the photographs I took focus mainly on that view point and some of the lichee details and tree textures around me.
Windy Marsh Soundscape
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The soundscape is a bit shorter than usual and perhaps the main feature of it is the sound of motorway traffic being blown strongly from the southwest. However, if you listen carefully, you will also hear the hissing rustles of the marsh grass which is a sound I love, though less because of the sound itself and more because of the marsh environment it conjures in my mind.
So click the play button to listen while viewing the images below – click the first one and then again to move forward through the carousel.
My walk this week took me down to the Loughor Estuary which has its own unique atmosphere whatever the weather conditions.
On this occasion it was dull and windy but no less enjoyable for that. If you like the wind, as I do, then this open, expansive land and waterscape is a good place to find it at a low elevation. The place can be spectacularly still and beautiful during a quiet sunset but I enjoy almost as much the cloud cover and wind here – a place that feels somewhat mystical in all conditions.
Lonely, harsh, wild, still, contemplative – all of these adjectives and more suit the place at different times.
Estuary Soundscape
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The soundscape follows me down a farm track, past early signs of Spring and a rushing stream to the open, wind blown estuary and salt marshes, under the railway bridge and out through the tall marsh grass by the river where I disturbed a pair of ducks but caught them fleeing on camera.
So click the play button to listen while viewing the images below – click the first one and then again to move forward through the carousel.
My walk this week is again from three years ago, when it seems as though the weather was colder and there was thick frost on the ground – we haven’t really had that yet this year.
The walk was in Penclawdd on the North Gower Peninsula and my selected images and soundscape below tell something of the atmosphere of the place as it looks out across the Loughor Estuary and Burry Inlet to Carmarthenshire.
The clear sky and open space is something I really appreciate at the moment, working indoors in a warehouse all the time as I am, and not seeing much daylight.Continue reading→
My walk this week is another one from the past – a cold walk taken in the first week of December a few years ago and now reviewed with the envy of being able to get out regularly.
This is a walk route I have often posted about and one I never tire of, whatever the weather conditions. Cold, crisp and frosty, some of my favourite details of the walk are below along with the soundscape created at the time.Continue reading→
My walk this week is more of the mind than the body with memories of curlews calling in the evening light and sunsets of south west Scotland back in September.
I was particularly keen and hopeful to capture the sounds of the evening birds across the sandy, muddy bay – in particular the curlews, if they were there. In recent posts I have presented soundscapes recorded on my phone but I had taken my field recorder (Fostex FR2-LE) and shotgun mic (RODE NTG 2) for the purpose. And I was in luck –Continue reading→
An early morning walk at sunrise isn’t so very early at this time of year and my walk this week along the Loughor Estuary ended up taking more of the day than I expected. It also fuelled my mind and the day ahead.
We have had so much rain lately that a bright sunny morning was most welcome (as it is anytime in Wales). The sun rose over the fields and across the marshes as I walked towards the open estuary where I could enjoy the wide open space with the tide out and the sky reflecting on the still water left by the sea.Continue reading→
