looking out

My Walk this Week 238 – Urban Lakeside

My walk this week is around an urban lakeside in a brief window of it not raining.

The clouds were threatening, or perhaps I should say promising, to rain – and of course they kept their promise, but not until after my walk.

I was going to say something here about Fendrod Lake in Swansea’s Enterprise Park, but hopefully the video and soundscape above and the images below will give all the information about the value of a place like this in an urban landscape.

It has certainly been valuable to me at this time of tier 4 Covid-19 lockdown just before Christmas. This time at the end of this year is very different to the norm and I am increasingly wondering if the whole thing is a natural warning to us from the planet to wise up and stop being so selfish. An attempt to get through to all of us that we are just a small part of the entire ecosystem and universe. It will be ourselves that we destroy, not the planet, if we carry on disregarding the myriad interconnections we have with all else on Earth and the cosmos. We affect everything and everything affects us. No matter how small or large, our actions individually and collectively have consequences and we had better take note.

OK, that’s the lecture finished – see and hear the sights and sounds both here and around you and enjoy the end of this year as much as you can.

Posted in My Walk this Week, Photography, Soundscape, Video, Wellbeing and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

14 Comments

  1. Hello Alastair, You won’t be surprised to hear that I completely agree with your comments –

    I caught the 101st object chosen by Neil Macgregor from the British museum, to add to his 100 objects for his history of the world, and the reasons why – In the end I think it was a boat of the type used by Syrian refugees to flee conflicts – so both historical of the last 10 years since the series first aired, but also symbolic of how with rising sea levels from CC, the whole of the world’s cities will be in peril. Coincidentally, this week I came across my notes from a Hay festival lecture back in 2013, where I read that 450 million years ago, when CO2 levels were 17,000 ppm rather than today’s 400ppm, sea levels were 180 metres above where they are! Makes you think… If we reckon things are tough now…

    Anyway on that cheery note, I wish you a very happy New Year, and lots more still walks – where are all the other people? I suspect you had much of the walk to yourself?
    Best wishes
    Julian

    • I suppose the demise of the human race (17,000 CO2 ppm) would only be a tragedy to us because we are conscious, thinking (sometimes) beings. Are any of the other species that have come and gone or that we have wiped out, in any sense aware of their demise or do they feel anything about it even though they not understand what is happening. I suspect it is only instinctual but that is the difference for us and the reason we can do something about it.

  2. Yes – agree with you – it is one of my pet hates when people say ‘we must save the planet’. The planet will survive very nicely and go on evolving long after we have destroyed as much as we can before our species is extinct. I imagine a new ‘intelligent’ species millions of years hence trying to make sense of all the plastic detritis and working out how we destroyed ourselves.
    Happy New Year!!!!! 🙂

    • Happy New Year to you Sandra. I did not focus my photography on the litter and plastic detritus you mention, but I was horrified at how much there was around the lake. I think that was one of the reasons my words were what they were. Let’s keep our fingers crossed (and all make an effort) we can all change in a positive way.

  3. Thank you for another year of Stillwalks, and for week by week sharing your experience of nature. I hope you have a restful winter break and that 2021 brings us all what we truly need and that it coincides with what we should want.

    • I would say the same you you Chris – replacing the word nature with “books”. Oh, and art in the museum. Your reviews are really helpful and interesting and I refer to you regularly. Thank you and Happy New Year when it comes.

  4. I enjoyed this lovely walk around the urban lakeside, Alastair. The photos do a great job of showing your understanding and love for textures, and the video was great for shadows. I espec. liked the swan neck shadows when they were gliding toward the camera. Also found that one view of the water thinly flowing over a washboard-like surface wonderfully mesmerizing. Thanks, too, for the lecture as it rings perfectly true and we all need to hear it during this pandemic. Sending warm wishes to you and your family for a new year of safe and happy times.

    • Thank you again Jet. I noted those swan shadows myself but was focusing more on my rant when writing. Anyway, what is it they say about not saying what can easily be seen. Best wishes to you and Athena

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