Looking Through a Wall and Relocation

Posted on 05/04/201606/04/2016 by Alastair

Walking around Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire was great fun but first . . .

Please read this!

Later this week I will be relaunching and relocating the StillWalks website and blog and must ask all followers who wish to continue receiving their daily dose of images and sound from the StillWalks blog, to click the link on Thursday’s post and the following days to relocate with me to the new website.

Thank you to all my existing and new followers.

Along with this relaunch we will be at The Waterside with publisher Management Learning Resources (MLRUK) to promote the new StillWalks package for organisations and individuals. That’s on 7th April from 10 – 12. Details and directions can be found here at The Waterside.

Now, back to this week’s walk and the murder holes! There were plenty of opportunities to look through walls at the castle which Julie was particularly interested in. Some of these would have been used in the traditional way (for a castle), i.e. shooting enemies with arrows! The most blood curdling, however, were the “murder holes” through which boiling oil would be poured on attackers entering this part of the castle.

Wintry Walk Soundscape and Reviewing the Week 55

Posted on 31/01/201631/01/2016 by Alastair

I am ending this week’s walk where I started, amongst the trees of Blaenige at MLRUK in Carmarthenshire. The wind had picked up at this point but as I love the sound of the wind in different trees, I was very happy to record it, albeit on my small Edirol recorder which doesn’t stand up to the wind in the same way my RODE mic does.

There may be some rumble in the soundscape below as a result of the wind, but it does not spoil the memory experience for me, though it does mean I won’t be producing a StillWalks video with it.

As a soundscape rather than a StillWalks video, it is unlikely that the sounds will match the images if you play it at the same time as looking at the photos, but perhaps it will still help to provide a better sense of place.

Blaenige Soundscape

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.

Meeting a Resident

Posted on 30/01/201630/01/2016 by Alastair

Having returned to the top of the farm track near the start of my short walk this week at MLRUK and Blaenige in Carmarthenshire, I met one of the local residents – in the form of one of their horses. I don’t know its name (I don’t even know if it is male ore female), but it was very friendly, pricked its ears up and came over for a chat.

Thorn and Thaw

Posted on 29/01/201629/01/2016 by Alastair

Today I am again looking at the textures, patterns and colours I found on my walk this week in Carmarthenshire. They are different to those I enjoyed in the woodland yesterday but the remnants of Autumn seen in the spiky thorns of a bramble and the soggy brown mass of drooping vegetation at the trackside are just as attractive as the woodland.

When I take a closer look at the intricacies within in the forms of these natural objects, I always get excited about the complexity of the world around me and how every aspect of it, including ourselves, is all connected in such a variety of ways.

You can see from the “river” running down the track how fast the snow is melting. I can imagine that the moss that inevitable grows thick in places like this, still enjoys a degree of dampness even in the height of Summer.

Lost in the Woods

Posted on 27/01/201627/01/2016 by Alastair

I didn’t get lost on my walk this week but I did come across this old shed that had the distinct appearance of being abandoned and lost in the woods. On closer inspection, it appeared that it may still be in use – I couldn’t say for sure, but I did like the aged appearance of it. Covered in moss, spider webs and snow the rusty corrugated iron sheets seemed well camouflaged in the winter woodland.

My descending approach to the shed took me through some deeper snow, the sound of which can be heard on my first post for this week. Care had to be taken and you can hear the point in the clip where I stumble. The rough track and the need to clamber over brambles to reach the shed again suggested it may no longer be in use, but who knows – the ways of those working the land will, perhaps, always hold some mystery.

Woodland Birds

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.

The penultimate photo in this sequence (cobwebs) can also be seen in monochrome at Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post Monochrome Madness MM 2-42.

Details and Vistas

Posted on 26/01/201626/01/2016 by Alastair

My short walk this week at Blaenige, near Cynwyl Elfed in Carmarthenshire was a mixture of snow, sunshine, wind and a brief spot of rain – in other words, typical for this part of the world. I had to take it carefully down the steep track but on the way I found some great views over the landscape as well as some attractive details in my closer surroundings.

My Walk this Week 18 – First Snow

Posted on 25/01/201625/01/2016 by Alastair

This winter has been so mild it came as a bit of surprise to find myself driving carefully through snow on my way to a meeting in Carmarthenshire. The meeting was at Blaenige, the home of MLR UK with whom I have been working for a while now to develop a StillWalks business package. The meeting finished in good time, and as I had brought most of my kit with me, I took the opportunity to go for a short walk down one of the steep hillside tracks through the farmland and woods.

There wasn’t a lot of snow and it was already melting during my walk but considering I hadn’t expected to see any this year, it wasn’t unwelcome and as the sky was partially blue, my walk this week, though short, was quite exhilarating.

One aspect of the walk which is changed with the snow is the environmental sound. Below I have included three sound clips of my footsteps in the changing snow. How much difference can you hear in them.

Crunchy Snow