Study and the Encroaching Sea

My walk at Swansea University’s new Bay Campus took me up from the beach and over the constructed sea defences and dune to the new Great Hall.

Swansea Uni new campus-17

The layout and positioning of this campus is very attractive in the beautiful weather I enjoyed on my brief tour, Continue reading

A Field of Fog and Fences

When I arrived at the highest point of my walk this week and rose above the fog, I was taken completely by surprise. Despite having walked through the mist, I hadn’t expected to see such a solid looking wall of it completely blocking the view I would normally have over the Loughor estuary and beyond to the Gower peninsula.

field of fog

However, on turning my eyes to the north, the scene was clearer and the last wisps of mist were Continue reading

Lonely Atmosphere

The sun was trying hard on my walk this week, to lift, or at least thin the thick mist that surrounded me and obscured so many details of the landscape. The foreboding atmosphere of the holloway footpath in yesterday’s post is repeated here with this naked tree at the edge of a field.

tree and fog

But as becomes apparent in the photos below, the mist is also influenced by a breeze and is therefore constantly moving. Continue reading

Downhill Through the Woods

Returning to the car on my recce walk this week took me through a section of pinewoods and is not the planned return route for the production walk I hope to do next week. See the event on the website for details of the walk if you are going to be in the area.

Lledr Valley Forest

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Vague Vista

As I climbed above the valley floor along a moss-lined lane, it would have been good to get a better view of the distant mountains around Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. Alas, on a day such as this, that was never going to be possible.

Lledr Valley

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My Walk this Week – North Wales Recce 2

My walk this week is from my second recent recce walk in North Wales, specifically the Lledr valley south of Blaenau Ffestiniog – there’s a name for you to have fun with if you’re not Welsh 🙂 The beautiful evening of the day before in Colwyn Bay did not follow through to this walk and the result was that I got very wet.

Lledr Valley-1

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Focus on the Landscape

Climbing on up to the top of the hill on my walk this week naturally changed the views of the landscape again. Having done this walk four or five times in the week, you can see the changing weather from day to day.

Through the recent weeks of Winter the changeable weather within one day, or even within an hour, might have accounted for all these photos. The last week or two, however, have been much drier and whilst still changeable, it is a welcome break from so much rain and hints at the season changing to Spring.

The sound clip below illustrates something of the current weather both in the birdsong and also in the crunch of the bracken underfoot as I walk across the hill to another viewpoint.

On top of Goppa

Birds and Bracken 

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.