Category Archives: My Walk this Week

My Walk this Week – Scottish Interlude

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My walk this week takes place in Scotland. While on holiday there in the south west, we took a day trip to Edinburgh and returned via The Helix Park at Falkirk to see The Kelpies for ourselves, but more on them later in the week.

It is about 35 years since I was last in Edinburgh despite having been born there. It was a 2.5 hour drive to get there and we didn’t want to spoil things by trying to do too much. So we decided on two venues close together and a short walk in the city centre. The venues were both the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – Modern One and Modern Two.

Modern 2 – the main exhibition was of drawing by Joseph Beuys, a very interesting show but it was essential to read all the accompanying notes in order to have any understanding of the work itself and how it related to his performance art. The museum itself is what my photos below focus on and it, too, was a fascinating place though with low light levels and a warm day, it felt rather stuffy and claustrophobic.

Modern 1 stairwell

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 – Stairwell Project by Richard Wright

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 – colourful toilets
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1 – stairwell mural
Modern 2 stairwell shadow pattern
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 Cafe – Vulcan by Eduardo Paolozzi
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 Cafe – Vulcan by Eduardo Paolozzi
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 – replica of Eduardo Paolozzi’s studio

My Walk this Week – Suburban Woodlands

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My walk this week features two different suburban woodlands which are very close to each other and through which I have not walked for a number of years. They have developed in the meantime.

The woods are in Stainton, on the outskirts of Middlesbrough in the north east of England. As with any conurbation there was the constant background sound of traffic but as the woods edge farm fields, there was also the thrum of a tractor engine throughout my walk. Neither of these things detracted from the sound of the birds oe my footsteps on the varying surfaces of the woodland. You may gather from this that my walk this week does have some sound clips to accompany the images and a short soundscape at the the end of the week.

All photographs and sound clips throughout my walk this week were made using my iPhone 6s.

stainton-woods-1

Stainton Woods

A note on the appearance of the blog posts if you are viewing them in an email – WordPress has been doing some odd things regarding the formatting of the posts in emails. The best way to read the post, view the images and listen to the sounds is to click the title of the post at the top of the email and you will be taken to the post itself on the StillWalks website. You will also then be able to click the “Like” button. Thank you.

My Walk this Week – Kunsthuis

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I have been off the grid, so to speak, for a couple of weeks while away on holiday in Scotland but our journey there took in a couple of other destinations in the North East of England. We delivered some of Julie’s work (Julie Brunskill – Ceramics) to the Kunsthuis Gallery in Crayke just north of York and discovered at the same time that Kunsthuis also has a nice cafe and gardens to explore. So my walk this week is a short tour around the place. I’m afraid there are no sound clips with this walk so you will have to imagine the north eastern English countryside sounds.

Follow my posts through the week to see some of the plants, structures and art work in the Kunsthuis Gallery Gardens.

Kunsthuis Gallery

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Kunsthuis entrance
Kunsthuis Gallery
Kunsthuis plants
Kunsthuis plants
Kunsthuis cafe
Kunsthuis Gardens

My Walk this Week – Roath Park

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My walk this week is from September last year. I had given my daughter a lift to Cardiff and while she did her thing I did mine, namely a walk round the lake in Roath Park.

It is a beautiful and popular park with many different birds, people and dogs all enjoying an opportunity to walk, jog, run, play, cycle, fly, feed, look, listen or just sit and take it all in.

Roath park-2

Ducks and Dogs in Roath Park

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Swans taking flight
mother and child walking the dog
Walkers, joggers and pram pushers

My Walk this Week – Taste of Gower, Penclawdd

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My walk this week is from the last Taste of Gower walk that took place at Penclawdd on the North Gower coast overlooking the Loughor Estuary, its salt marshes and Burry Inlet.

As can be seen in the first image below, it was a beautiful day. Starting from the car park overlooking the salt marshes with the tide out, we were guided on the walk by Rod Cooper who talked to us about the industrial history of Penclawdd and its heyday with the copper works. The river Loughor apparently takes a different route now to what it did in the days of the copper works. At that time there was a harbour at Penclawdd which would have been necessary for the industry. That was back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now it is all salt marsh and of course the benefit of that is the salt marsh lamb that is so tasty.

Salt Marshes

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Taste of Gower walkers
Salt Marshes
Rod Cooper
Old copperworks wall

My Walk this Week – Brynmill Park

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My walk this week was taken on a day that held a number of meetings for me, not least the Swansea Walking Forum meeting in Brynmill Park. Having a gap between other meetings in the morning, I was able to take my camera and sound kit around the lakeside and found the place being well used during the school Summer holidays.

Brynmill Park

You can’t tell from these shots how well the park is used but perhaps the sound clip below will prove the existence of people (and traffic) in this city park.

A Sneeze in the Park

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My Walk this Week – Cairnholy

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My walk this week’s actually taken a couple of years ago but as I am going to be in the same area again over the next week or two, it seemed a good time to post about our visit to the chambered tomb of Cairnholy in Scotland. I don’t have any field recording from this walk so I am afraid there will be no soundscape this week.

The weather on this walk could have been better but was not so bad to stop us going and the walk up the small road towards the ancient site was very attractive in itself.

Cairnholy woodland

 

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Cairnholy woodland
Cairnholy woodland
Cairnholy
Cairnholy

My Walk this Week – Nash Point

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My walk this week is from Nash Point on the South Wales coast. It is a place that holds memories for me, not least of which is a schools / RNLI project I did with HyperAction some years ago – “Launch the Lifeboats, Stories of Wreck and Rescue in the Bristol Channel”. Other memories are of the cliff lined, wave platform shoreline between Nash Point and Monknash where I produced the StillWalks video “Breakers Walk” for CARIAD, the research unit at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

The lighthouse, its foghorn (no longer used but listen below) and the cliffs with the wave platform at their foot makes this a truly amazing place.

Nash Point Lighthouse

Nash Point Lighthouse

It was pretty windy when we were there and I did not get much done in the way of field recording. – that is not what we were there for. I didn’t even take my camera so all photography for my walk this week was done on my iPhone.

I recorded the clip below on the “Lifeboats” project and you will be able to hear the wind between the blasts of the fog horn if you are not too blown away by the horn itself!

Nash Point Fog Horn

Nash Point Fog Horn

Nash Point Fog Horn

Monkfish Cliffs

Monkfish Cliffs