Tag Archives: field recording

holey tree

My Walk this Week 126 – Woodland Wonders

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The wonders of the woodland, the lakes, the colours and the soundscape . . . and the textures and the bird life and the patterns and the fact that the rain held off for me on my walk this week around Gnoll Estate Country Park in Neath, South Wales – these are some of the things that I enjoyed about this walk.

Early Autumn colour

One thing I did not remember from previous visits (going back a few years) was the oak tree with a huge hole through its trunk. Clearly the park authorities felt it was a wonder worth preserving and have reinforced the natural structure with metal rods.Continue reading→

sunset silhouette

Scottish Skies 3 – Sunset Silhouettes and Impressions

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The silhouettes of stacked and jagged rocks and dark hills give a realistic impression of the scene they describe, but it is an impression. The camera (without any filters) provides more contrast than is there in reality and there have been occasions when I have increased that contrast further in order to provide a better sense of what the scene felt like.

sunset sentinel

The Impressionists did a similar thing in painting scenes that, while not perhaps accurately or photographically depicted, gave a more accurate impression or sense of life. Photorealism in paintingContinue reading→

kissing gate 1

Eight Gates and A Churchyard

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My walk this week included nine gates, not eight, but the gate to the old churchyard on my local marshes was open and so is not included in the soundscape below.

Churchyard gate

The old St Teilo’s churchyard is a fabulous place and the walk across the marshes, alongside the River Loughor is also a local route I enjoy immensely. If doing a linear walk rather than the circular route,Continue reading→

undergrowth

Dry Weather – Overgrowth and Undergrowth

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In the park woodland the undergrowth is seeing an overgrowth and we have had so much unusually good weather lately that the water level in the park pond has dropped dramatically – the bullrushes are going well but the mud is being exposed.

empty pond

Where once there were bluebells, now there is a rapidly thickening jungle of bracken. Above, in the oak trees a son thrush sings and it’s little one (?) down on the ground looks slightly bewilderedContinue reading→

lambs looking back

Looking Back Down the Hill

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Looking down isn’t always the best thing to do – certainly not if you want to see where you are going – but it is also necessary if you want to be able to see the details underfoot of where you are. In the case of the lambs in today’s featured image, looking back down the hill at me is a matter of curiosity, the curiosity of the young.

dewey web detail

Their mothers had led them up the hill away from me as I approached on the descending lane, but they halted half way up to check me out. I too halted many times on my walk, first to look andContinue reading→

Waterside Wander

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My walk this week was more of a lazy wander. The warm sunshine and the relaxed atmosphere at the Welsh Valley Alpacas Open Day prompted a meander more than a walk and that is what we did (see the two previous posts for this week).

ribwort

Returning from the top of the valley at The Waterside – Felindre we first met some of the male alpacas with their new shorn hair-dos. Then, sitting on a perfectly placed bench, I soaked up the atmosphere and photographed (yet again) one of my favourite wildflowers,Continue reading→

River Tawe and the Copper Jack

Copperopolis 2c – Old Engines and A Trip Up the River

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The rusty old engines I found as I turned a corner at the end of my walk this week around the old industrial buildings of Copperopolis in Swansea, brought a big smile to my face. The colours, textures and patterns of the old wheels and screws, cables and rails are wonderful.

Rusty wheel

The boat trips up the River Tawe pass by this old historic area of Swansea but I had a much better view of abandoned machinery than those on the Copper Jack. If you look back atContinue reading→

Yellow flowering broom

A Glimpse of the Past – Copperopolis Part 1c

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Ending my observations on this first part of my walk around one of the old industrial sites of Swansea’s Copperopolis history, you only get a glimpse of that industrial past. The abandoned metal swizzle below is not necessarily a part of that past but it was there and made me think of some of the natural forms to be seen in the nature that is gradually taking over here.

abandone twizzle

The natural twizzles had in fact almost completed unfurled themselves in the new growth of yellow broom or green ferns growingContinue reading→