My Walk this Week 222 – Forest Gone!

Posted on 04/09/202003/09/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week was up to a forest that is now gone, a forest or woodland which I used to enjoy enormously – but it is not permanent.

I have posted many times about what was a coniferous woodland and last year, when the trees were harvested, I was as devastated as the landscape. However, my walk this week showed me the footpaths had been cleared, new saplings were planted and the remnants of the old wood were getting hidden by fresh new greenery coming through. I was delighted 🙂

The sounds of the old coniferous trees and the ambience of that type of woodland was something I also enjoyed very much. But again I was delighted to hear the very different sounds of a multitude of small birds taking advantage of what is currently a more open landscape.

Forest Gone Soundscape

I look forward to returning many more times to this place, watching and listening as a new deciduous woodland develops.

wildflowers

wildflower seeds

trees and landscape

open vista

lonely tree

green Welsh valley

local horses

footpath

wildflowers

View at the top

Forest gone!

that lonely tree again

view from above

My Walk this Week 220 – Recce in the Sun

Posted on 14/08/202020/08/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week was a recce in the sun for a VR walk that we will be producing at the earliest opportunity.

The walk was at Three Cliffs Bay on The Gower and it was hot! The “three cliffs” can be seen in the background of the image above but to see their real scale, please look through the images below.

I’m sorry I don’t have a soundscape for this walk, although the sound in a VR (virtual reality) walk will be very important and we will be paying close attention to it.

If this post looks different to usual, that is because it has been entirely produced on my phone using the WordPress app. All photos were also taken on my iPhone.

My Walk this Week 217 – An Evening on the Marshes

Posted on 24/07/202022/07/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is back on my local salt marshes where the evening was still and the midges were out in their millions.

I went down there for the sunset and then had my back turned, recording sound, when it actually dipped below the horizon.

It was a still evening and there were not many birds singing but as always in this environment, there are gates – specifically four, but there were more people using them than just myself. I have included four in the soundscape but had I included all the instances of use on this short walk there would have been the sound of at least ten!

I understand and accept that by now you may think me obsessed with gates, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. Aside from the individual audio characteristics they have which I enjoy, they are symbolic of so much. They are way markers, milestones, entrances and exits simultaneously, thresholds, limitations, invitations – and they come in so many designs!

There is a bird that appears in the recording at about 01:10 – it was in the woods at the edge of the marsh but I do not know what it is. If anyone can tell me, I would be pleased to know. The Covid-eased traffic is ever present on the motorway but I have focused more on the other sounds in the trees and on the marshes.

Marshes Evening Soundscape

The images below seem not to show on the WordPress Reader any more, though the audio player does, so if using the reader, please visit the website by clicking on the three vertical dots on the right of the blog name to bring up a menu allowing you to visit the post on the website.

second gate

across the salt marshes

marsh grasses

light reflections

midges

fotbridge with gates

marsh wildflowers

tall marsh grasses

footpath route

sunset

silhouettes

evening light

calm river

rosebay willow herb

pond at dusk

My Walk this Week 214 – Park Positive

Posted on 03/07/202002/07/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is in Singleton Park, Swansea and took advantage of the slight relaxation in the Covid-19 lockdown measures. Whether it was right or not to do this with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, it was a very positive thing to do for the sake of my mental wellbeing.

Sheltering under the trees from the rain I took advantage of the pause in our walk and snapped a shot or two, including the crushed wild garlic that was giving off a wonderfully powerful scent.

Once the sun reappeared the clover shone like jewels in the open grassland of this expansive urban park. While the botanic garden was closed due to the difficulty of distancing, the rest of the park-scape caused no problems in this respect and everyone there respected the social distancing advice.

In the smaller Brynmill Park on our return, this was a little more problematic, but people mostly did what they could to maintain a distance and the lake there is a popular attraction.

Park-scape Sound Clip

I have not called the audio above a soundscape because recording on my iPhone as I was and that not taking well to the wind, I did not capture as much sound as I would have liked.

The media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, so please visit the website to listen to the sound clip and view the images at the same time.

My Walk this Week 211 – Straight Along the Cycle Path

Posted on 12/06/202011/06/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is straight along a local cycle path that I have not walked along in the current season for a few years.

I used to walk this path every weekend during school term time when my daughter was in dance classes nearby. Whether raining or sunny, the walk is a beautiful one and twice the length I walked of it this time as I waited for my car in a local garage.

As with my previous walk on the marshes last week, the path was busy with walkers and cyclists – everyone taking advantage of the good weather and some going for a play about in a secluded pool in the local river. You can hear the laughter and voices of youngsters enjoying themselves in the soundscape below.

Cycle Path Soundscape

All photos were taken on my iPhone and also the sound recording, which suffered a bit from the breeze.

The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.

start of the cycle path

old tree

crusty bark

along the walk

across the fields

buttercups

old plant patterns

wild rose

tree fan

tree fingers

straight

wire doodle

past growth

walking on the cycle path

old tangle

cycle path woodland

looking up

dappled light

view from the path

My Walk this Week 210 – Covid Walk on the Salt Marsh

Posted on 05/06/202002/06/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week on my local salt marsh, during the Covid lock down, was different to usual. In relative terms, the footpath felt as busy as the M4 motorway which seems to have returned almost to its normal level of traffic.

If you look carefully at the image above you can see the “crowds” in the distance. Without wanting to be too sarcastic, I should mention that there were various other families, couples and individuals using the riverside footpath. As I am used to meeting no more than one other person at most, it felt crowded to me and I veered away from my intended destination of the “church(yard) on the marshes”.

Sound levels may be returning to pre-Covid-19 levels in this area but that includes the birds as well as everything else. Just as the ambient decibels increase, so does the bird song – and there is still the beautiful sound of the wind blowing through the tall marsh grass.

Marshes Covid Walk Soundscape

The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.

sheltering sheep

new fence

entrance to salt marsh

salt marsh

wildflowers

marsh wild flowers

yellow flags

cow parsley

marsh grasses

first footbridge

marsh textures

marsh textures 2

marsh footpath

River Loughor

salt marsh crowds

cracking

lifted foot bridge

distorting growth

marsh ditch

More marsh crowds

Marsh return

My Walk this Week 207 – Cefn Drum Lower Slopes

Posted on 15/05/202014/05/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is a warm Springtime walk to the lower slopes of Cefn Drum (pronounced Kevn Drim). I didn’t have time to go further but it was still a most enjoyable and much needed relaxing and therapeutic hour.

The weather is cooler now (my walk was taken two weeks ago) but the road verges are still looking as beautiful as ever. I have a suspicion that the County Council has delayed much of the cutting and trimming they do each year – either that or the climate over the past year has, for all its ups and downs, produced a bumper crop of wildflowers . . .

. . . or perhaps nature is just taking full advantage of not so many humans being around as a result of the Covid-19 lock down!

The birds were singing, the insects buzzing and true to their name, the mayflies were flying above the river in unbelievable numbers. You’ll have to trust me on that one because, unfortunately, I didn’t get a photograph.

Cefn Drum Soundscape

The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.

My Walk this Week 206 – I should have been here now

Posted on 08/05/202004/05/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is a re-post of one I made two years ago in the place we should have been now – SW Scotland. But due to the Covid-19 lock down, all holidays were cancelled and so we can only visit virtually.

The evening light in my selected shots of sunsets in SW Scotland show the changing scene from day to day from different viewpoints. Almost all the photos were taken on different evenings but it is easy to take many, many photographs throughout just one evening as the sun sinks down and the light and shade and colours change above in the sky and below in the bay.

Fewer clouds this year might have meant less drama, but I don’t think that is ever the case in this place. The skyscape / landscape / seascape is always mesmerising and holds my attention,
in awe again and again at the yellows and reds, greens and blues, and on one occasion pink and grey. The peacefulness is unparalleled at times like these.

Evening Soundscape

This soundscape is not from the same post but is certainly from the same place.

NB The place we stay with these wonderful views is called High Tide. It has been in my family since my grandfather built it in 1937 and although it is currently closed due to Covid-19, we do accept bookings from people other than family and friends. Watch the website for updates on the situation with regards to booking.