Category Archives: Reviewing the Week

One Last Tree and Reviewing the Week 51

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My walk this week may have been from a different year but that winter was almost as mild as this one has been. Had these photos been taken in 2015/16, there would probably have been more rain than mist but hopefully that would  not have stopped me doing the walk. I am, however, looking forward to some drier walks in the coming year!

Tree and Mist

Try listening to this soundscape of the walk while viewing the images in sequence – click the play button and then the first thumbnail below.

Misty Walk Soundscape

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

Wild Weather Walkers and Reviewing the Week 46

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Reaching the end of my wild and windy walk between Southgate and Three Cliffs on the South Gower coast, like these other two intrepid weather walkers, I was huddled over and protecting my camera against the rain.

I have not created a full StillWalks video of this walk using a mixture of still images and video because I am not a great fan of hand held video and I have not had the time. However, the sequence of photos and the sound clip below can be viewed at the same time and if you are interested in the video I took on my iPhone during the walk, this can also be viewed at the end of this post.

Mixing video and stills is something I will continue to experiment with for StillWalks and if I can find the time I will probably work further with this walk in this way. In the meantime I hope you can enjoy all that I have posted this week and don’t end up too breathless or blown off your seat!

walkers

Wild Wind

If viewing this in an email, to view the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

When playing the video I recommend you click the HD and full screen buttons.

Walking Soundscape – Reviewing the Week 45

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Sometimes I listen to “Ramblings” on BBC Radio 4. Clare Balding presents the in programme which she meets and converses with various people as part of a countryside walk. She does a good job of describing the scenery they walk through and the talk is always interesting. There is just one failing for me as a radio programme – there are never enough pauses to listen to the environmental sounds of the walk. They are there in the background but constantly over-layered with talk.

I like to listen to all of the sounds I encounter on a walk or in the case of a quiet walk, I like to listen to the lack of sound, the stillness.

The series of sound clips below last about 15 minutes and follow my walk this week. Starting in a Welsh country lane with autumn leaves all around, continuing up a local hill (Cefn Drum) to the cairn at the top and then back down again to the leafy lane. It was a very still and peaceful walk but there are plenty of sounds to listen to along the way.

I like to listen to other field recordists’ soundscapes as well – one I enjoy regularly is set in  Paris (Sound Landscapes) but the sounds of the city are as fascinating to me as those of a natural landscape.

Click the play button below and listen to the soundscape of my walk this week while browsing through the sequence of images. It’s not a StillWalks video but I hope you can relax and enjoy it in the same way.

Autumn footpath

NBGW and Reviewing The Week 44

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This is the smallest of the three lakes at the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW). It is the one that welcomes you along with the ducks when you arrive and makes for a beautiful and relaxing memory to depart with along with all the amazing scenery, flowers and plants, architecture, art, science and history of the place and of course, walks. It is well worth repeated visits and having watched it develop over these past fifteen years or so, I look forward to a lot more growth in the future.

Click the first in the block of images below to view the week’s photos in sequence.

Garden of Wales entrance lake

Cardiff Bay Walk and Reviewing the Week 42

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The fountains across the road from the Wales Millennium Centre were at the end of our walk along Cardiff Bay barrage.

Click the first thumbnail image below to view the photos from this week’s walk in sequence (plus a couple of extras).

fountains in front of the Wales Millennium Centre

Autumn Leaf and Reviewing the Week 41

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It seems the sweet chestnut is one of the trees that sheds its leaves earliest in Autumn. This one is on its way but the stage I like these leaves best, after they have fallen, is probably into the Spring when they have been lying on the ground for months and have gone thin and papery. Their structure breaks down and their colour becomes pale, almost bleached. I have photographed them like this in the past and you can see the results in one of my previous posts here.

autumn leaf

Hazy Walk and Reviewing the Week 40

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Looking at the photos in this week’s morning walk posts, I note the haze as well as the morning sunlight. Yet again in this shot, you cannot see anything of the Gower Peninsula in the background. Taken at the end of the first week of September, perhaps we were due for some rain at the time, just to clear the air a bit.

Loughor estuary landscape