These photos prove the time of year down on the marshes for the Old Churchyard Walk on the Loughor Estuary. The sheep scene looks as though it could be from ancient times!
Tag Archives: Loughor Estuary
Meat on the Marshes
The walk from Coedbach Park across the marshes to the old St Teilo’s churchyard is one of my local favourites. You can see it in the Old Churchyard Walk. The marshes on the River Loughor are tidal and therefore salty.
I don’t know what this sheep thinks about it all and I can’t say that it is specifically a Salt Marsh sheep but it is one of the flock from the marshes.
Given the recent news about the mix up of meats – beef? horse? – people may be looking at other meats at the moment and I know the salt marsh lamb I have tasted is pretty good stuff. One place to get it is Gower Salt Marsh Lamb. Whether it is meat or veg, I cannot recommend highly enough the taste of your own home grown or locally produced food.
Affected by Atmosphere
Walking out along the Loughor Estuary last Sunday morning, the weather was still but overcast and the sound of the M4 motorway was even more evident than usual. I love the marshes on the estuary and the old St Teilo’s churchyard, and I normally find that I suppress the sound of traffic in my head and listen instead to the birds, sheep, cattle and wind along with the sound of my footsteps in the grass or mud and the rustling of the reeds.
These are some of the sounds recorded in the StillWalks I have produced here. I did not do any sound recording on Sunday but I got a few shots of the area and thought about how much the sounds we hear are so unique to the time and place we are in. They are the result of things like the weather conditions before and during our visit as well as the activities of others, like driving along the motorway on a Sunday morning to go shopping or visit family or whatever. Twenty five years ago there was virtually no Sunday morning traffic on the M4 but even now the traffic sound can seem distant if the wind is in the right direction or other environmental aspects such as a high tide, rain or time of year change the conditions.
This is something we’ll be looking at on the Sights and Sounds of the Countryside project which you can find out about here or follow on Facebook.
The StillWalks website is offline at the moment due to malicious hackers but you can see 480p versions of two StillWalks from the Loughor Estuary on Vimeo – After the Tide and the Old Churchyard Walk. They will be available to buy in full HD when the site is back up and running.
Here are some photos of the Loughor Estuary and the marshes. Image prints can be purchase at PhotoBox.
View from the Top
Last Sunday was a beautiful day here in South Wales which encouraged me to take a walk up Graig Fawr. The views over the surrounding countryside are uplifting . . . when the sun is out. Looking west you can see over to Carmarthenshire and looking south the view takes in the Loughor Estuary and the Gower Peninsula.
The wind was blowing and the Skylarks were singing and I needed to get to the top. Here are a few of the photos I took and also a sound clip of those Larks in the wind.
You can hear those Skylarks in the wind here or you can play the clip below if you are already on the blog.