Category Archives: Nature

Riverside Trees and Buidlings

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Trees and buildings, urban sounds and natural sounds, those are the defining features of my walk this week. The buildings were always there but were often well hidden by the trees.

buildings and trees

The birds were always there but they too were well hidden in the trees. People and dogs were evident as well but until writing this post I had not included them in the images I selected for any of my posts this week – what does that say about me?

There were walkers (adults and children), dog walkers, joggers and cyclists using the footpath and as can be seen in the one photo I have now included with people, they are very conscientious dog owners who have all cleared up after their dogs..

Walking the Dogs

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Descending Through the Wild Woods

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Descending from the hill at Weobley Castle to the level of the salt marshes on my circular walk this week on the northern edge of the Gower Peninsula, we passed through some woodland which was filled with wild flowers.

It is always good to see bluebells and it is also good to see wild garlic. Even though the scent can be almost overwhelming at times, I love both the sight and the smell garlic in the woods.

Bluebells

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Alpacas Looking On

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Having crossed the first couple of fields on my walk this week with the Taste of Gower walkers at Weobley Castle, we came upon one with three very curious and stylish looking alpacas. I am familiar with the curiosity of alpacas from my visits to The Waterside, but these three were no less entertaining for that.

Alpacas

The Taste of Gower walks are well organised and usually have three walk leaders making sure that everyone is accounted for. As the organiser of the walks, Steve Lancey was sharing his lead with both mid-group and back markers and though trailing a bit at times in order to do some field recording, I managed to remain close to the slower members of the group.

Gates, Wind and Walking

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The Ground Underfoot and a Second Source

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Walking with the Living Taff group, our mini expedition to find the two sources of the River Taff, or Afon Taf, on the slopes of Pen y Fan and Corn Du in the Brecon Beacons, we took a short cut across open grassland to the second and larger source of the river, the Taf Fawr.

“Fawr” meaning big, the source was indeed larger than the previous one round the other side of the mountain, but the river at this stage of its life is still quite small as you would expect.

grass in the Brecon Beacons

Walking through the dry, scratchy, springy grass was a very pleasant sensation. We listened to the sound of our footsteps and thought about its texture and colour and the peacefulness of this part of our walk.

I managed to record a small snippet of this part of our walk and whilst the soft murmur of voices from the rest of the group is still in the background, there is also the gentle flow of this youngest stage of the river accompanied by the flow of a warm breeze through the grass and across the shoulder of the hill. We had enjoyed the skylarks too but at the point of recording, they had decided to keep quiet.

Taf Fawr

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Definition of Pattern

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If the Swansea Uni students using the new Bay Campus have the chance to enjoy the beach in front of them, they will find, as I did on my walk this week, that some of the sand of the beach is made up of what appears to be old coal dust. This is entirely possible of course, given the industrial history of the area.

beach with black sand or coal dust

What I enjoyed about this aspect of the beach was the contrast in colour betweenContinue reading→

Faint Colours and Clear Sounds

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With the mist swirling around on my walk this week, the colours in this first photo are, if anything, stronger than they were in reality. I couldn’t remember for sure when it came to post processing. The second shot in this short sequence is even less distinct but is more representative of my memory of the scene.

feint colours in trees

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Familiar Patterns – Lines in the Sand

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The sand of Colwyn Bay beach was full of linear patterns familiar to anyone living near the sea. As the sun dipped lower and lower on my walk this week, the patterns became more pronounced and however often I may have seen these kinds of sand patterns, they are not something of which I could ever grow tired.
sand patterns

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