Tag Archives: balance

Early morning light

My Walk this Week 262 – Striking a Balance, Health and Wellbeing

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My walk this week is one I am currently taking on a daily basis and striking a balance for my health and wellbeing is an essential part of it. You will understand what I am saying and why if you read this post.

Balance in everything is a motto I fully agree with, but when it comes to my personal health and well-being, I cannot say I always follow that philosophy. I have been described (accused?) as being a workaholic and while not admitting to that, it may be that I am somewhat over-ambitious when it comes to what I can achieve. There is so much I want to do, but it seems that balance will insist itself upon me regardless of my strategies and time management. 

So now I must admit to suffering from physical and mental exhaustion. While I hope that the past weekend laid up in bed, not attending to anything other than friendly blog conversations, I have realised that I must let something drop from my life, at least temporarily. 

Yes, you’ve guessed it – no more blogging for a couple of months. It’s frustrating because I really enjoy doing the StillWalks® posts and reading/viewing/commenting on others’ blogs. 

The video and images in this post are from an important element of my current working days. I am back working in a warehouse for the time being. It is not work that I enjoy (though the people there are good), but needs must as they say. One good aspect of the location of the work is that it is in walking distance of my home and the last part of the walk in and the first part of the walk after work is this woodland environment next to the small Camffrwd river. 

Through StillWalks® I have always promoted the value of the environment (particularly the natural) as the best resource for mental health and well-being. However, I did not realise just how valuable it is in this sense until benefitting from it when I come out of the warehouse at the end of the day. 

The sights and sounds of the trees, the water, the fields with horses, the birdsong, and a convenient bench to sit on to soak it all in – it is invaluable to me. And yet I find that while it can calm my mind and lift my spirits, it does not give me actual physical energy. So having used both my physical and mental resources, I need to lighten the load, take a break and only do what is essential for a month or two. 

I hope you miss the StillWalks® posts 😉

Early morning light
Afon Camffrwd
rusty metal banking
fields and horses
woodland path
riverside
mossy river wall
homeward bound
ruins 1

My Walk this Week – Old Copperopolis Part 1a and an Argument For Nature

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My walk this week is the first stage of my visual exploration of local nature and an old and world renown aspect of Swansea’s history – Copperopolis. Click the link if you would like to know more about that history. In the past I have only photographed elements of this industrial history and the nature overtaking it from across the River Tawe and it was good to take the opportunity to look a bit closer at how nature takes over all that we leave behind.

through the trees

It is good to see how little impact we have on the the natural world, at least in the longer term of our lifespans – even multiple generations of our lives are only a snippet of time in the life of the planet or universe. It is also excitingContinue reading→

floor decoration

My Walk this Week – Architecture at The Glynn Vivian

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My walk this week is not in a natural environment but instead it is around the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum – unless you consider our need for creativity a part of nature, which I do! It is an essential part of our existence that we observe the things around us and it is a part of my own particular nature to enjoy observing what we call art, and also on this occasion, architecture and design.

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum

The architecture of the original building is formal, balanced, symmetrical. The newer wing is made in concrete and the even newer entrance is largely glass. This is perhaps fitting as the building opposite also has a new glass extension as entrance to Swansea College of Art and the original design of this building reflects that of the Glynn Vivian.Continue reading→

50 Years and Getting Back to Nature

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The moss covered steps in the image below never really had a chance – not without the intervention of man. Nature and the tree have been taking their course for 50 years and will not let puny things like concrete get in their way.

There are many different reasons for managing woodland. Whether it be to gain resources for one use or another, or to ensure the ecology of the woodland stays mixed and allows a variety of plants and animals. Either way, we manage woodland for ourselves, not for the woodland or the wildlife.

Left to its own devices, in time a woodland may become a monoculture. Given the sort of time that nature considers a millisecond, but we think of as millennia, who knows what would happen?

If you leave it alone, nature will do just fine by itself. The fact of the matter is, of course, that we are here on the planet and we need to live side by side with the rest of the creatures and plants. For me the key to all our survival is to live side by side and not to try and take over or rule over the natural planet (or ourselves for that matter).

Lifting the path

Talking about the Sweet Chestnut

Dai Morris talking about a Sweet Chestnut tree, one amongst many varieties being planted and managed at Coeden Fach woodland near Swansea, South Wales.

This week’s featured StillWalks video is from the south west of Scotland. This medium resolution full length version will be here all week and will then revert to the sample.

The video above is in 480p quality. You can use the Donate button below to pay however much you want and receive a high quality (720HD) download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Coastal Walk – Spring” which features part of the Galloway coastline in Scotland. Click the image above to watch the video. DVD Collections are also available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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