My Walk this Week 134 – Surprised By Goats

Posted on 23/11/201819/11/2018 by Alastair

Click the play button and then the first image to listen and look through the features of my walk this week. It’s another local forest and while it may be true that all forests and woodland consist largely of trees, they are also all quite different. One thing was certainly unexpected on this walk and that was the goats! Looking at the sharpness of their horns I decided it would be best not to confront them but to negotiate a more diplomatic route through the trees.

Forest Walk Soundscape

Starting from the lower reaches of the woods on the edge of Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 127 – Autumn Morning

Posted on 01/10/201828/09/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is on a beautiful Autumn morning in a place well known to me but always new as well. The fact that I have seen the scenes and details of this Welsh valley and woodland many times make them no less enjoyable.

There are changes of course since I was last here – strong winds have brought down more trees and branches but the ground underfoot, in spite of the return of notable rainfall, is still dry and firm.

I love to see the little heads of peristomes standing upContinue reading→

Running Away (from a dark day?)

Posted on 21/03/201817/03/2018 by Alastair

As we came out of the Great Glass House at the National Botanic Garden of Wales on my walk this week, I looked at the impending weather and took a couple of shots. I had noticed the family in the middle ground but only realised the symmetry of the children running away from each other as part of a game after I had taken the photo.

Those dark clouds did catch up with us but not at this point in our walk when I was still interested in the growth andContinue reading→

My Walk this Week – Freezing Over

Posted on 05/03/201803/03/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week braves the bitter wind blowing across Britain from Siberia. I have never seen ice like this on our local river, the Afon Dulais, but despite this and the fact that the rest of the country was under thick snow, we had next to none of it! The “beast from the east” and Storm Emma brought high winds and bitter cold but we were disappointed not to get any snow when seemingly all around us a colour, texture and acoustic change was taking place across the land.

Never mind, despite the ice feeling like it was inside my fingers, I still enjoyed my walk and the sights and sounds were still different to normal, but more of that later in the week. There was still someContinue reading→

Out of the Light and Into a Rhododendron Tunnel

Posted on 19/01/201812/01/2018 by Alastair

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.

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→

Valley Frost Revealed – Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 30/12/201721/12/2017 by Alastair

When I arrived at this viewpoint near the start of my walk this week, the valley was filled with a thick fog. Now, having had a peaceful walk through the forest, the valley is revealed, and it is cold with frost.

In a couple of my posts about this walk I have described the woodland as peaceful, and indeed it was. The background sound of traffic on the motorway is almost always there but there are a few pockets of peacefulness that allow virtually complete escape from that sound.Continue reading→

Open Landscape and Under Cover

Posted on 29/12/201721/12/2017 by Alastair

Reaching the highest point on my walk this week allowed me to look out across the open landscape to towards the Gower Peninsula. Every time I stand in this spot I take a couple of photos and on this occasion I was also tempted by the rising sunlight and pale frost covered fields to capture the fence heading off in perspective to be silhouetted against the sky.

Heading back under cover of the woodland my aural experience was still and peaceful and I tried to keep it that way by taking careful footsteps on the soft ground – not so easy when the ground is covered in crisp leaves from Autumn, but straightforward enough when on the thick carpet of pine needles and moss. Tomorrow I’ll post my short soundscape for the walk.

frosty sunrise

sheep and frost

Open perspective

leafy woodland footpath

mossy log

woodland footpath

Woodland Frost and Interior Moss

Posted on 27/12/201721/12/2017 by Alastair

We’re past the Winter Solstice now and almost at the end of the year. The days are getting longer (not that you would notice it much yet) but the frost is still here and the ground underfoot is crisp. The warming blanket of moss is also still there and green in the sheltered interior of the forest at least.

Earlier this year I explored an old disused and overgrown path through the middle of the woods – it connects two other paths with which I am already familiar. After battling my way through the bramblesContinue reading→

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