Tilting at the Wind

Posted on 03/08/201601/08/2016 by Alastair

No tilting at windmills here – just tilting at the wind as I nearly get blown off my feet. The power of the wind and the sea is not imaginary and it is remarkable that the youngest member of the family looking out to the horizon in the second image below isn’t being rolled up the beach like the foam of the waves.

On the gentle incline of Colwyn Bay beach the waves may not be very big, but that doesn’t mean the weather is any less wild. A number of the photos I took that day had an horizon line in danger of falling off the edge but whilst it is easy enough to correct this, leaving the first image below as it is helped to emphasise the nature of that environment at that time.

Tilting to the Wind

Looking out to sea

Sea foam

Paragliders – Colours in the Sky

Posted on 02/08/201630/07/2016 by Alastair

It was a perfect day for my walk this week at Colwyn Bay . . . if you like the wind! There are those that will take full advantage of the wind every time, such as paragliders. I spotted these two the moment I stepped onto the seafront and as I walked towards them, it was difficult to pay attention to the rest of my surroundings. The mesmerising entertainment of their aerial acrobatics was quite a distraction.

Colours in the Sky

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Paragliders

Colours in the Sky

Paraglider

Paragliders

Paragliders in the surf

My Walk this Week – Windy Day in Colwyn Bay

Posted on 01/08/201630/07/2016 by Alastair

My walk this week takes me back a couple of months to a working visit to Colwyn Bay on the north coast of Wales. It was a fresh Spring day and the wind was blowing strong. I think the image below describes the conditions perfectly.

Whether or not I develop a StillWalks video from all the material I recorded on this short walk along the beach remains to be seen. If I do, it will not be one of the relaxing ones – more invigorating I think!

The off shore wind farm seen on the horizon of the first shot below is an interesting feature, sometimes there and sometimes not! Depending on the light (constantly changing on this particular day), the turbines can become almost completely invisible or present complex repeating patterns as they shine with reflected sunlight.

Running into the wind

Windy Day in Colwyn Bay

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Abstract Concrete

Glimpse of the bay

Running into the wind

Crossing to the sea

Looking Over Corris – Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 31/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

Back to my car again and looking over Corris where I have been walking this week, I was hopeful that the rain that was still falling at 5.30 AM had finished for the day and that I would be able to climb the mountain for my StillWalks production walk.

As it happens, it did not rain again but the route I ended up taking up the mountain was not my original planned path and was fairly arduous. On top of that (or the mountain), the mist came down and so the video I produce from it will be a “Misty Mountain Walk”.

Overlooking Corris

Sorry again that there is no soundscape this week. I hope you can still enjoy the images below without it.

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Hostel

Corris street

Afon Deri

Railings pattern

Morris railway station

cemetery in the mountains

railing decoration

Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

Tafarn – Tŷ Bwyta

Overlooking Corris

Eating and Art

Posted on 30/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

One of the places I wanted to check out on my walk around Corris was Stiwdio Maelor. It was closed when I was there but works of art were in the windows and as there is a long list of artists in residence for 2016 on the website, the artists may simply have been out and about in the mountain landscape. You can find out about the residency scheme for artists on the website and I am sure that any artists reading this that don’t already know of Stiwdio Maelor will be very tempted by it.

Whether artist or not, just round the corner from the gallery/studio is the local tavern to tafarn in Welsh. Imm sorry to say that it being first thing in the morning, I was not able to try it out but I heard good things from the owner of the hostel up the road.

Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

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Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

Stiwdio Maelor – Mita Solanky

Tafarn – Tŷ Bwyta

Morris wall

Water in Turmoil – Looking Upstream

Posted on 29/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

It is difficult to tell in this first image whether you are looking upstream or down. The water is in such turmoil that its direction seems to be every which way.

It wasn’t raining on my walk this week around Corris in the Welsh mountains but the memory of it was fresh in my mind when I looked down at the Afon Deri flowing under the small main road through the village.

I’m sorry now that I didn’t record any of the sounds of the village – I think I was focusing more on the potential sounds of the StillWalks production walk up the mountain that I was going to take later in the morning.

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Corris river – Afon Deri

Corris

railing decoration

Under the Mountains

Posted on 28/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

In a place like Corris, situated in the deep valleys amongst or under the mountains in Wales, there is no horizon to be seen. Seeing as how I love trees so much and they cover the mountains on all sides, I shouldn’t have a problem with this, and I don’t!

Recently I was at an artist’s talk – Lee Williams at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea – where he was exploring the notion that we are affected by our surrounding environment. This is a subject I have thought about for many years but it is hard to come to any definitive conclusions about whether or not the topographical element of our living environments influence the way we are or the way we behave as there are always so many other contributing factors. Those mentioned in Lee’s discourse at the link above relate to Port Talbot which has the best and worst of worlds in its beautiful mountains next to the sea and its heavy industry and pollution.

It could be argued that the people of Corris, while enjoying the wonderful moubtain-scape of their surroundings, also have to suffer what most would consider an abnormal amount of rainfall. Ah well, you can’t have it all I guess.

cemetery in the mountains

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cemetery in the mountains

Corris road

Corris bench

Corris wall

Visiting Corris and its Narrow Guage Railway

Posted on 27/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

My walk this week was my first visit to Corris in the Welsh mountains. I have passed it on the main road often enough but never had the opportunity to stop. It is a beautiful place even when wet and now that I have had a look around, I know that there is a narrow gauge steam railway to be enjoyed.

I wasn’t able to take advantage of this feature as I had other plans for a StillWalks production walk up the mountain above Corris Uchaf and overlooking Tal-y-Llyn but if you are planning a holiday in the area . . .