Flooded marsh sunset reflection

Taking a Short break

Hello to all StillWalks followers. This is a short message to let you know I will be taking a short break from posting My Walk this Week. If I don’t take the break, I may end up breaking myself.

I hope you miss the weekly walk posts but will leave you for the next 2 or 3 weeks with a few calming, tranquil evening images from our local marshes and a soundscape from the place where I will be staying for a fortnight.

evening on the marshes

If you are interested, the collection of soundscapes from which this one is taken, is available here. All sales currently feed into the Art and Audio Interactivity project currently being planned and for which I have been making some very interesting, useful and exciting connections. I will post an update to my progression with this at the end of the month on the project blog.

Thanks very much for everyone’s follows, likes and comments and I will “see” you again at the end of the month.

Coastal Evening Walk Soundscape

 

evening reflection

An Evening with Marsh Grass

The tall marsh grass I enjoyed so much on my walk this week was enhanced by the beautiful evening light and the high tide which flows far up the River Loughor from the estuary. On this evening the level was perfect for a walk – not so high as to cover the surrounding marshes, but high enough to make the river brimful.

Riverside Marsh Grass

The result is a smooth mirror in the middle of the landscape, one that reflects all above and around it – the colours of the sunset and the riverside grasses. The surface was broken onlyContinue reading

Focus on rust

My Walk this Week – All A Bit Marshy

My walk this week is a bit marshy, but not boggy! I hadn’t been down to our local salt marshes on the Loughor Estuary for a while and as the weather was unusually dry,  it was an opportunity to see how things had changed as they undoubtedly would have done in some ways.

I never get tired of seeing this environment – it has the quality of peacefulness and tranquility when it is dry even with the motorway traffic in the background. The day was still with little or no movement other than the slow flow of the half full river as the tide receded. The subtle swirls of the current gave a gentle distortion to the reflected pattern of clouds, but there was unquestionable evidence in the form of gaping cracks that there had been slippage of the river bank as a result of high tides and fast flowing water.

A makeshift rusty barrier was constructed as an extension to the wooden fence that prevents cattle reaching an area where the marsh grasses give refuge and residence to some of the birds that enjoy this habitat. I disturbed what I think was a beautiful looking corncrake but wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get a shot of it.

 

Following the creek

Following the Creek

On my recce walk this week on the marshes with other project workers, we were told that, basically, we would follow the creek. This turned out to be important!

Marsh creek

The creek, although well hidden in the expanse of marshland, is still the only clearly identifiable feature – as long as you stay close to it.Continue reading

Grass Reflection

The marsh water beside the lake at Llyn Llech Owain in Carmarthenshire, Wales, was almost like glass when this shot was taken. The reflection of grass and clouds in its surface is only distorted by the slightest of movements on a cold Winter day.

Do you have a preference for the landscape or portrait crop?

grass reflection

grass reflection

Footsteps on the Boardwalk

This week’s featured StillWalks video is “Winter Lakeside Walk”. It shows Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmarthenshire, SW Wales. The video was produced last Winter. This year we have not had any cold weather (yet) and so I have not been able to enjoy the sound of my footsteps on the creaking boardwalk as it shifts on its struts in the frozen water in the marshes around the lake . . . but you can hear those sounds in this video.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Winter Lakeside Walk” which features Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmartheshire. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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After the Tide

This week’s featured StillWalks video is “After the Tide”. It will be available to watch all week and will then revert to the sample length video.

The marshes in question are tidal and therefore salt marshes. They are near a busy motorway and the sound of the traffic is almost always there to some extent. Having said this, I should also say that it is one of my favourite local walks and the sound of the traffic does not bother me. Yes, I love the peace you can find in quieter rural locations, but on the marshes, I simply don’t listen to the traffic.

The wind in the grasses and the birdsong are the sounds I focus on and on the occasion of this StillWalks production, the sound of my wellington boots in the water as the tide ebbs.

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “After the Tide” which is from the marshes on the Loughor Estuary, South wales. Click the image below to watch the video.

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