This should not be described as a mountain road as the Mawr uplands are not a mountain. Given the conditions at the time, however, there is no way to tell where this road is or where it is going. The only clue is the language on the road – SLOW, or in Welsh ARAF.
If last week’s photo series was about changeable weather, this week’s is about the apparent permanence of moisture during one of the rainy seasons in Wales – there is certainly more than one!
I was recently up on the hills of the Mawr ward near Swansea to assess the conditions for a scheduled project production day . . . what a joke. I couldn’t believe the weather on my journey up there but thought “the weather is so changeable these days, you never know, it might clear“. Ha! Wishful thinking indeed.
Having said that, I had my waterproofs with me and decided it would be good to try and capture something of the atmosphere of the place in these wild conditions. So here is a short accurately descriptive sound clip to accompany the first two images of the week.
In celebration of the centenary of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, I thought I would post a second time today with a link to my StillWalks video “Cwmdonkin Walk – Autumn”. The park in Swansea was a significant feature in Dylan’s life and has seen some notable improvements in the last year to celebrate his centenary.
I have upgraded the normal sample version of the video to the full length at a higher resolution and hope that you will enjoy it as much as those people using it on a daily basis.
Click here or the image below to watch the full video (8 minutes).
Cardiff Bay as it is now, is so different to what it was when we first moved to Wales in 1983. It was later in the ’80s that the development began – I wish I had taken photographs back then. There are plenty images to be seen in the galleries (past and present) on the bay website along with the history of the development, but they are not mine and I cannot compare them to the photos I take of the place nowadays.
The fountain in the image below is set into one of the old dock walls.
The source of the river Lliw lies in the upland area of the Mawr in Swansea. To get there requires a short hike across the hills from a road that feels like it is in the middle of nowhere.
This beautiful environment is not far from civilisation and the ease with which I can get from the hubbub of society to these wonderful areas is one of the good aspects of Wales.
Looking for the source of the River Lliw on the Mawr upland area of Swansea, we started our search near another source. This is a beautiful area of South Wales where there are a few quiet, still days in the year but mostly it is windy.
We hadn’t had rain in this area for a while when I took these photos of the landscape around Swansea. I don’t know if it was atmospheric conditions, pollution or simply dust in the air, but it is not uncommon to have hazy days like this in South Wales, regardless of its reputation for continuous rain!
I stopped on top of the hills on my way home recently, just because it is a place worth stopping. The sights and sounds, the peace and tranquility (on a warm quiet day) of the Mawr area in the county of Swansea . . .
