My walk this week comes from Scotland and it is not so much a walk as a simple record of the stillness, peace and quiet we have been experiencing in this first week away.
Three short iPhone videos tell the story – listen out for the cries of curlews in the evening – there is nothing else like them.
Post and all videos/images created on my phone.
Hello to all StillWalks followers. This is a short message to let you know I will be taking a short break from posting My Walk this Week. If I don’t take the break, I may end up breaking myself.
I hope you miss the weekly walk posts but will leave you for the next 2 or 3 weeks with a few calming, tranquil evening images from our local marshes and a soundscape from the place where I will be staying for a fortnight.
If you are interested, the collection of soundscapes from which this one is taken, is available here. All sales currently feed into the Art and Audio Interactivity project currently being planned and for which I have been making some very interesting, useful and exciting connections. I will post an update to my progression with this at the end of the month on the project blog.
Thanks very much for everyone’s follows, likes and comments and I will “see” you again at the end of the month.
The soundscape for my walk this week in Rowntree Park in York, is formed by buggies and bicycles, footsteps and wheelchairs, skateboards and birds, children and adults – all enjoying the mid afternoon sunshine and warmth.
The sound file below describes and refers to the images in this and the two previous posts for this walk but does not say anything about the strange object amongst the trees that I noticed in the shadows from a distance. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I reached its other side – I assume it refers to an aspect of York’s history but as there was no information on it I cannot say for sure.
I did not explore the whole park on my walk but enjoyed every minute of it from the pergola to the ponds, the gates to the grasses, and all the activities of calm relaxation surrounding me. I like the gates to the park’s southern entrance, and their shadows, but have only just realised how closely they match the pattern of growth in my photo of tall grasses below!
Rowntree Park Soundscape
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A calm, hazy, hot day and the stone buoys that mark the entrance to a small disused harbour reflect in the water and a gull appears in contemplation of its quiet surroundings.
Like the gull, I too sit in contemplation of the scene and objects around me – stopping from time to time on all my walks to look and listen and absorb the sights and sounds, the textures, patterns and colours of the environment and feel the connections I have to all that is there.
Whether the connection is slow and seemingly timeless, as in the wrinkles and folds seen in the surfaces of rocks, or quicker, like the more immediate ripples of the water blown by the breeze, pushed and pulled by the sun and moon along with Earth itself (see Tides), the influence on me of these interconnections is sometimes obvious and noticeable, sometimes utterly imperceptible, but there nonetheless.
Imperceptible or not, I am aware that they exist and enjoy contemplating, or perhaps imagining, the ties that hold me (rather than bind me) to the intricacies of the planet and all that exists and lives upon it.
Contemplating Quiet
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I think it was probably volunteers that planted this beautiful lavender in our local park, and a beautiful addition it makes too! The park is managed and developed through a combination of the Friends of Coedbach Park and the Swansea City Parks Department and they’re doing a great job.
The park has many different features including two oak woods known locally as the first and second woods. They are divided by a driveway that leads past a playground, tennis courts, bowling green, BMX track and pond to the rugby club and playing fields. It is a very well used park Continue reading
My walk this week is from an event in West Wales with WWAMH (West Wales Action for Mental Health). I had been asked to run a couple of StillWalks taster sessions for their “Let’s Celebrate Gardening” event at Clynfyw Care Farm and so I focused on sound walks – or perhaps I should say silent walking.
The benefits of walking in a group are primarily social – you get to chat with friends or meet new people in an active way and often in a pleasant natural environment. My own preferenceContinue reading
The density of the bracken on the steep hillside down which I was climbing cautiously, is common on the open commons of the Welsh landscape. While bright green in the Spring and Summer, it changes the hills to bright red in the Autumn when the light is right.
We are having August weather this year as if we were already in Autumn and the bracken is now beginning to change colour. However, it was still bright and thick on this walk back at the end of June. My poor knees were aching from the steep descent (I much prefer climbing) and I had to sit down to give them a break half way down the slope. Continue reading
My walk this week around Swansea’s botanic garden in Singleton Park naturally features many colours. Yesterday it was red, today it is the turn for yellow.Continue reading