bark patterns

Still Travelling but Walking in Circles

Still in York on my walk this week I found myself getting lost! I wasn’t actually lost in that I knew where I was, but I could not find the place I was looking for. I was full of a rotten cold and blame this for being unable to read the sat nav map I tried using on my phone to navigate on my walk to the required shop. I started out from the car park at Clifford’s Tower and passed by St. Mary’s church but then ended up going round and round in circles in the intricate layout of small central streets and passages.

St Mary's York

I did a better job of finding my way to meet my niece and walk with her back to my parents’ house. While waiting I found the these gates of interest Continue reading

River Dulais bridge

Out of the Light and Into a Rhododendron Tunnel

Having risen towards the sunlight at the start of this walk, I then had to descend again, and in doing so took a route that led me through a natural tunnel rhododendron tunnel.

This is the final part of my walk this week and a slight change of format. I am no longer going to post a review of the walk each week so if you want top see the rest of the walk you will have to visit the two previous posts.

Rhododendron tunnel

The tunnel is dark but feels fabulous and the middle of it is the quietest section of the walk. While the images below cover only the last part of this walk, the soundscape is from the whole walk which starts and ends with the sounds of the Dulais River or Afon Dulais.Continue reading

Gerbera? arrangement

Garden in the Museum in the Park

It may be that the title of this post sounds a little odd, but the Museum in the Park is the name of the museum and it has a beautiful new garden at the back of the building. The park is Stratford Park in Stroud and my walk this week took me around it after viewing  a Anne Jackson‘s exhibition of knotted tapestry in the museum gallery.

Gerbera?

I entered the garden by the entrance beside the orangery (see previous post) and enjoyed every visual, aural and tactile moment in the place. I can’t includeContinue reading

Pen Allt-Mawr

Cwmdu Walk Part 3 – Reviewing the Walk

Back where I started by the farm and spinning/weaving workshop where my daughter was learning how to use a spinning wheel and on time for the end of her day at All In a Spin.

track fence

The three stages of this walk – up the valley (Cwm Sorgwm), across the top (Mynydd Llangorse), and down into the valley again will be edited as a StillWalks video. As the existing selected images and soundscapes would make the video last about 20 minutes, I will have to re-edit and select these to bring the video length down to about 9 or 10 minutes. Continue reading

makeshift gate

For the Love of Gates

On this last section of the third part of my walk above Cwmdu in Wales I had the enjoyment of going back through the gates I had passed through on my ascent of the valley – Cwm Sorgwm which lies between the Brecon Beacons and The Black Mountains.

gate

I am sure there must be psychological significance to my enjoyment of gates (symbolic opportunities perhaps?), but one thing seems sure – Continue reading

Brecon Beacons

Welsh Vista – Reviewing the Walk Part One

Reaching the shoulder between Mynydd Llangorse and Mynydd Troed on my walk this week, gave me wonderful views of a welsh vista overlooking the pattern of fields an hedgerows towards the Brecon Beacons.

Welsh fields

I took a short rest at this point of my walk and absorbed the peaceful day – yes, peaceful in spite of all those international flights I mentioned in my previous post. Continue reading

thistles

Colour in the Valley and Some Cautious Sheep

Colour and sheep were significant features of this first part of my Cwmdu walk up Cwm Sorgwm between the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains in Wales.

Gate and foxgloves

The colour was largely the vast array of greens common to the Welsh countryside and hills, but also other colours such as the purples of thistles and foxgloves. The sheep too,Continue reading