Similarities or Differences – Moss Wood, Gnoll Park

Posted on 03/11/201303/11/2013 by Alastair

Next week’s featured StillWalks video is another wood in Autumn. Today is your last opportunity to see the current featured video from Penllergare Woods in Swansea.

Moss Wood is not just another wood in Autumn! Every woodland features trees but when you start looking at the detail and listening to the sounds, you will soon discover that the fact that a wood contains trees, is just about the only thing about them that can be said to be similar.

The trees of a deciduous wood will drop their leaves in the same season and grow new ones similarly. However, considering last week’s posts about how the seasons roll out at different rates according to location, each wood will look and sound different at any point in time.

Both Penllergare Woods and Moss Wood in Gnoll Park, Neath, have a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees. Both have lakes and running water. In each, the leaves are turning and falling just now, and so you see similar colours. And so the similarities continue . . . and yet they are completely different.

The arrangement and prevalence of types of tree, the position and lay out of the streams, rivers and lakes – all are different. And so, inevitably, the atmosphere and sense of the two places are quite different. The weather conditions are similar in both woods as they are no more than 15 or 20 miles apart, but as the topography is different, so the sound of each place is different, and completely unique to the time and place from moment to moment.

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Woodland Walk” which is from Penllergaer Woods near Swansea, South wales. Click the image below to watch the video.

Footpath Through the Woods – The Changing Season

Posted on 02/11/201302/11/2013 by Alastair

The end of my walk through Cwm Green Woods brought me back to the clearing and car park where I heard so many pheasants earlier in the morning.

I started this week’s posts writing about the rolling out of Autumn across different areas. The leaves on the ground in the last photo of this post show the difference of change between one kind of tree and another, and the conditions of their immediate surroundings. Even within quite a small area, there can be significant difference.

The trees shown at the start of this series were just beginning to change colour whilst these ones, just a few hundred yards away, are well on their way through the season.

Light and Shade Amongst the Trees

Posted on 31/10/201331/10/2013 by Alastair

On my walk through the woods at Cwm Green on the Gower in South Wales, I felt like I was walking through ancient woodland. I cannot say how long the trees have been there but I know, from the evidence, that they are managed – there was even a footpath, thought not very well defined in places.

The woods are on hilly ground and so there were times when I was deep in the shadowy depths, and others when the effect of the sunlight making its way between the trunks or shining on autumn leaves in the canopy was . . . (searching for a word here) . . . emotional!

The first image I have posted today is one of those few occasions when I felt that a black and white panoramic crop was the best representation of the scene. The last photo is looking out of the woods and across the fields to Parc-Le-Breos House, a fantastic bed and breakfast hotel in whose grounds the woods are situated.

The Sounds of Cwmdonkin Park

Posted on 24/10/201324/10/2013 by Alastair

There are a number of different features to Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea and if it was anything like it is now in Dylan Thomas’ time, then it is hardly surprising that he liked the place.

All the photos I have posted this week from my recce walk of the park have been take on my iPhone and I look forward to returning with my full StillWalks production kit. I had the kit in the car when I was there but neither had the time nor the inclination to go and get it!

Noise pollution – Too much of my time in the park was spent with the aural backdrop of somebody from the parks department using a leaf blower! I cannot think of a more irritating source of noise pollution.

There are two sound clips here, tell me which you prefer.

These and two other clips can also be listened to on SoundCloud.

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Autumn Lakeside Walk” from Gnoll Park, Neath, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video.

Cwmdonkin Water

Posted on 23/10/201323/10/2013 by Alastair

Cwmdonkin Park Recce, Swansea

Posted on 21/10/201321/10/2013 by Alastair

Last week I had an unexpected walk around Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea. The park is well known for its association with Swansea’s very own poet Dylan Thomas and it has recently had some work carried out in it with a grant from European funds.

It was a good time to be there as this work had been completed and the colours were changing with the season. The sun was shining and if it hadn’t been for the noise pollution of a park worker blowing leaves away with a noisy machine, it would have been perfect. The noise (which eventually stopped) did not stop me getting a number of photos on my iPhone and I will be posting these here through the week.

This weeks featured StillWalks video can be viewed at the bottom of this post and last week’s video will revert to the sample version.

Autumn Lakeside

Posted on 20/10/201320/10/2013 by Alastair

Some advance images from next week’s featured StillWalks video – “Autumn Lakeside Walk” from Gnoll Park, Neath, South Wales.

This is the last day for this week’s featured video “Quarry Walk – Autumn Rain”. You can see this at the bottom of this post.

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video. Click the image below to watch the video.

Patterns and Prints

Posted on 15/10/201315/10/2013 by Alastair

What are these pimples in the sand? What is that strange cone shaped object in the sand?

We took a walk along the beach in the Millennium Park at Llanelli, Carmarthenshire last Sunday and not for the first time I thought “I have to do a StillWalk of this place!”

I’ll post some more reasons for this thought over the next couple of days. All photos taken on my phone because we went for a walk, not a photo shoot!