Today I am hoping to photograph dragonflies and damselflies at a Countryside Connections event but the weather is not what it was a couple of weeks ago when I was on Swansea beach! I guess we’ll just have to see how we get on – watch this space!
Category Archives: Nature
Three Cliffs Bay – Step 7, End of the Series
Visit the StillWalks website for videos and more
All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.
The title says it all – it’s the end of this series of photos and while these images are not from Three Cliffs Bay itself, they are from the last part of my walk from Parc-Le-Breos House down to the bay, up to Pennard castle and back through the woods.
The last photo hints at the crossing of a footbridge and, indeed, this footbridge leads back into Park Mill, the village just below Parc-Le-Breos.
A Countryside Connections Walk
Visit the StillWalks website for videos and more
Swansea Countryside Connections Team, through which StillWalks ran the Sights and Sounds of the Countryside project, put on a number of events throughout the year for those living in eligible rural wards in Swansea. It was one of their dawn chorus walks where I first met Helen Grey and it was she, along with Tim Orrell, who was leading the Nature Detective Walk along the Gower Way from Felindre to Lower Lliw Reservoir last Wednesday evening. See the photos below.
As this was the route taken by the Sights and Sounds project on the production day for the Felindre Families group, I thought it would be good to go along – and indeed it was! I discovered what the funny lumps and bumps are in the first field we crossed. We found a very old ash tree with branches twisting and twining round each other, reflecting its age. We saw Deadly Nightshade amongst other plants and flowers, a badger set, mole holes, young Hazelnuts, whin, thistles, ducks, etc., etc.
“Helen, you will have to remind me of that last little yellow flower I asked you about. I cannot remember it it now!”
Click here (Countryside Connections Events) to see what other Countryside Connections events are coming up.
Repeat Viewing – A French Evening Walk
Here it is again – the French Evening Walk video from yesterday’s post. I really like it and so I want to show it to you again and maybe, if you have already enjoyed it, you will watch and listen and enjoy it again.
Selected images from the shoot are available on the StillWalks Photography site at PhotoShelter.
French Evening Walk – The StillWalks Video
Finally, here is the French Evening Walk StillWalks video I previewed on this blog a few weeks ago. It’s only taken a year to finish it off but I am pleased with the results. I hope you enjoy it.
Take the opportunity to watch and listen to it while you can because this 480p video is full length, but only for a while. The StillWalks videos on the website are now all sample length low resolution versions which are available to buy in a range of formats.
The walk takes place in the Indre et Loire region of France – specifically along the tiny road from the medieval village of Faye La Vineuse to St Christophe. It is a beautiful and peaceful part of the French countryside which lies a few miles south of Richelieu, the town designed and built by Cardinal Richelieu (think the Three Musketeers).
If you are seeing this in an email, click the image below to go to the blog and play the video.
Visit the StillWalks website for more videos
Selected images from the shoot are available on the StillWalks Photography site.
Sand and Wind – Public Art In Swansea Bay
You could call these “sand sculptures”. That is surely what the wind on Swansea beach has been doing this week.
Nervous about the hazardous mixture of sand and cameras, the wind that blew those land surfers around on the beach the other day (see previous posts this week), didn’t stop me taking the risk and getting some low level shots of the public art work it was creating.
It is not in the same style as the work featured in yesterday’s post but over the years the wind and sand have blasted and changed those public art works in Swansea Maritime Quarter.
Completing the Circuit
Please visit the StillWalks website
Returning to the start of my recce for a StillWalks Sights and Sounds Tag Along Walk (see previous posts) brought me back to Parc-Le-Breos House via their pony trekking centre.
It sure is set in a beautiful part of the country!
Click on the photos to enlarge. More are available on the StillWalks Photography website at PhotoShelter.
Parc-Le-Breos Horses
Parc-Le-Breos House
Parc-Le-Breos Grounds
Parc-Le-Breos hanging basket and arch way
Planning a Walk – Walking on the Gower
Please visit the StillWalks website
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in writing a regular article about my walks in the Swansea and South Wales area for the online version of the South Wales Evening Post. So, with the interests of StillWalks in mind and what they are all about, I will be posting up my sixth article today – My Walk this Week – from Parc-Le-Breos House.
I have recently been planning StillWalks Sights and Sounds Tag Along Days and this has necessitated exploring possible walk routes in suitable places. This not only serves the intended purpose of setting up these events / workshops, but also provides me with good material for the Evening Post article.
My first exploration was to Parc-Le-Breos House. The reason for selecting this as a starting point is the number of already planned walks that start from the Bed and Breakfast and include some beautiful areas on the Gower Peninsula. Also, there is the option for refreshments and facilities and the use of a room for review of photography and sound clips produced on the Tag Along walk.
Below are a couple of the photos I got on my recce walk. I will talk more about this and post more photos over the next couple of days and a selection of the images are available at the StillWalks Photography website on PhotoShelter.
Giant’s Grave, Green Cwm
Flowers along the wayside
Long Oaks Woodland at Parc-le-Breos