My Walk this Week 128 – Rowntree Ramble

Posted on 08/10/201806/10/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is a gentle ramble round Rowntree park in York but it is written with tears in my eyes. I took the walk on a recent visit to my parents who since then have both died, with my mother going through what she thought of as a transformation just one week after my father. They were both ill and each going peacefully in their sleep was a blessing, but that makes me no less sad for their passing away.

This walk shows my first visit inside Rowntree Park – I have visited York often enough but until this occasion I have only been able to look into the park from the outside because my previous opportunities all coincided with the River Ouse being in flood. Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 127 – Autumn Morning

Posted on 01/10/201828/09/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is on a beautiful Autumn morning in a place well known to me but always new as well. The fact that I have seen the scenes and details of this Welsh valley and woodland many times make them no less enjoyable.

There are changes of course since I was last here – strong winds have brought down more trees and branches but the ground underfoot, in spite of the return of notable rainfall, is still dry and firm.

I love to see the little heads of peristomes standing upContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 126 – Gnoll Park

Posted on 24/09/201822/09/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is to a park I have not visited for a few years. Gnoll Country Park in Neath is a beautiful place with lakes, woodland, cascades, wildlife, wildflowers, history and a great community building.

Entering the park from the lower southern entrance was new for me and I got to see a part of the park I had not been round previously but no less enjoyable for that. I was taking the opportunity to walk here because I was in Neath anyway as I have lately been working on the website for a new gallery in the town – Queen Street Gallery. Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 125 – Concrete and Trees

Posted on 19/09/201815/09/2018 by Alastair

Looking for urban woodland on my walk this week, perhaps inevitably, I found concrete and trees. While trying to keep to the narrow wooded area behind York University, I intentionally crossed a road via an underpass in order to find the castle-like structure I had spotted on Googlemaps.

Similar in design to Clifford’s Tower in the centre of York, the structure was much larger than that, and made of concrete. From the ground it was well camouflaged by the foliage patterns of light and shade cast by tall trees and the sun on the imposing walls and rusty windows.

It wasn’t a brutalist modern day castle, butContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 125 – Berried in York Woodland

Posted on 17/09/201815/09/2018 by Alastair

Returning to my weekly theme of walks, I have recently been in search of woodland inYork. While the city is full of beautiful, mature trees, there is a lack of woodland – something that I am used to having where I live. I know it is a city and I shouldn’t expect to find woodland in its centre, but even around its outskirts the land is flat and farmed.

Following a footpath through a strip of land behind the university I first found seed heads left over from the Summer and then the berries and fruit of Autumn. Huge conkers on horse chestnut trees, black and red berries poisonous to humans, rose hips and brambles – they were all abundant and added to the colour around me.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Parched Paths

Posted on 16/07/201814/07/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week shows the changes that have taken place in this location since six weeks ago – the ground is now parched where it had been lush and green. The character of the landscape has changed and presents a greater sense of the mediterranean than Wales.

In Wales we say it either was, is, or is going to rain, and it is true that we get what some would say was more than our fair share of it. However, it is also true that we get dry spells (from time to time), but not usually with the heat that we have been experiencing all over Britain for a few weeks now.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Keeping To the Footpath, Following the Rules

Posted on 02/07/201801/07/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week follows the rules and my local marsh footpath down to the old St Teilo’s churchyard. It is a walk I love and have done (and posted about) many times. But there is always something new to see as the the conditions are always different. One of the first things you come upon when leaving the park above the marshes is this metal gate notice telling you to “KEEP TO THE FOOTPATH”.

I’m not one for sticking to the rules but I am sure that, like me, most people walking here do keep to the footpath because it takes you were you want to go and follows a very attractive route.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Wildflowers in the Park

Posted on 25/06/201815/06/2018 by Alastair

One month on and my walk this week is in our local park again and the wildflowers are different. Out with the blue (bluebells) and in with the yellow.

It’s a playground for children and animals alike and the squirrels are still going crazy, scampering all over the place – there seem more of them this year than ever before.