My walk this week is through a woodland I have not walked in for a few years – Moss Wood in Gnoll Country Park. In truth I am not sure that this woodland is the one I walked in previously, as the StillWalks video I produced here was in a coniferous wood which has since been cut for lumber.
The coniferous trees of the lumbered wood were adjacent to these deciduous trees – I think I simply walked a different route to last time. Either way the walk was beautiful and I will be doing it again without any concerns about coming across the multiple stumps of felled trees.Continue reading→
My walk this week is a short one in Swansea Bay that I was able to fit in between meetings. I try to organise my days to allow me to do that as I find even a short walk in the open air a valuable refresher for my brain and body.
I often use my StillWalks® videos in the same way – to get a short break in the middle of a busy day as its not always convenient or even possible to go out for a walk. The videos don’t give me the physical exercise but they do refresh my brain and relax my nerves.
My walk took me onto the expansive beach of Swansea Bay Continue reading→
Hi everyone, for a number of reasons I have decided that My Walk this Week is going to be posted just once a week . . . on Fridays. So I hope you will look forward to Friday for my next walk which presents the sights and sounds of an Autumn woodland – see the image below as some encouragement to look, read and listen to the post.
The posts will still include a soundscape for the walks and I hope to encourage you to click the play button for these and then browse the images in sequence. This does not give the same experience as a StillWalks® video, which I will soon be making available through membership, but I hope they are still enjoyable and give the opportunity to take five minutes out from the hubbub of modern life.
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.
One reason for my walk this week through the woodland of my local park was to see the Bluebells that have grown up profusely in the past few years since the park has been managed by the Friends of Coedbach with the support of the council’s Parks Department. The temptation with bluebells when photographing them is to exaggerate the saturation of colour in an effort to replicate the impact a carpet of blue in woodland has on our senses as we walk amongst the trees.
They are amazing but however anyone processes or presents a photograph of them, the reality is that, at best, the image will provide a good memory of the last time you saw bluebells in the real world. I have tried to avoid exaggerating the colour in my photography of this phenomenon but looked instead for anglesContinue reading→
My walk this week has been through a space between, a space on the edge of both nature and industry – and nature, of course, wins every time and in so many ways.
Looking at the evidence of man is perhaps not the best way to finish my posts on this walk but there are other elements to the landscape apart from the old tyres and wires. The profusion of old Buddleia bushes will soonContinue reading→
Looking through the sights and sounds from my walk this week at The Waterside, Felindre, I find I am already looking forward to my next visit. On this walk I have focused on some of the details of the place, in particular the different effects of water, both in sight and sound.
It can be a challenge to keep seeing things afresh, but however familiar we become with a place or situation, the conditions are always different from day to day, both in our surroundings and in ourselves. Taking the opportunity to try and see and think about things from a different perspective, both the big picture and the details, can be very helpful and The waterside is one of the places, for me, where I can do this.
It is different to the many other places I walk because a visit to Sue and Steve in this small, secluded Welsh valley involves connection and conversation with others as well as observation and appreciation of the beautiful surroundings.
Walking is important to me for many reasons – one of which is free-thinking time and exploration of ideas. Creative conversation with others as a part of the exploration can be a helpful consolidation of thoughts or a chance to further explore alternative mental routes and this is one of the things I get from The Waterside and Collective Headspace.
Lingering around the lake at The Waterside is a very easy thing to do. On my walk this week the weather was good – sunny and almost still with just the lightest of breezes from time to time.
A walk here is more about wellbeing than exercise and whatever the weather conditions, there is huge advantage to be gained from a quiet contemplation of the place and the space.Continue reading→
