Constructing the Changes and Reviewing the Week

This may seem an odd image with which to end my walk this week but it is a fact that new building is constant. Fortunately I am still able to rise above it (literally) by walking higher up the hill from which the residents of these houses regularly get to enjoy beautiful sunsets.

My short soundscape this week reflects all aspects of the walk. Listen to it while viewing my selection of the images I’ve posted through the week.

Construction

Goppa Soundscape

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

My Walk this Week – Hints of Spring

The photos for my walk this week span a few days. I took the same walk each morning for four days and was partly inspired by the first hint of Spring – i.e. sunshine!

It’s another short local hill walk. The hill is fairly small, but steep and rises to about 450 feet. At the bottom my route followed that of the local river with snow drops lining its banks. I was tempted to stop and take some (rare for me) slow exposure shots of the water falling over the weir.

I didn’t have my tripod with me and so most of the shots were discarded. However, there were a few I liked including the underexposed one taken with a faster shutter speed and which shows the patterns and textures in the falling water.

Snow Drops

Canal Walk and Reviewing the Week

Looking back at my walk this week along Swansea Canal at Clydach, I hope you can enjoy both the images and the short soundscape. The work that Swansea Canal Society are doing to maintain and restore this beautiful waterway is well worth it and it is clear that many people enjoy and benefit from it.

Play the soundscape below and enjoy my selection of images from through the week as you listen.

Swansea Canal at Clydach

Canal Soundscape 

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

My Walk this Week – Along the Canal

Since visiting various sections of Swansea Canal a couple of years ago, I have meant to return to the section which runs through Clydach, just a few miles from Swansea in South Wales. Finally getting a convenient opportunity, I took one of my cameras and my small recorder and though of my walk as a recce for a StillWalks production in the future.

My walk this week illustrates this recce walk – where necessary I used my iPhone with its wider angle lens.

The walk starts by the canal where it meets a loop of the River Tawe. However, the first shot below shows the water of the canal flowing into the Clydach river before it joins the Tawe on the other side of the canal and flows on down to Swansea.

Swansea Canal falling into Clydach River

Swansea Canal and River Tawe

Swansea Canal

Winter Walk Soundscape – Reviewing the Week

Crossing the dam at Lower Lliw Reservoir ends my walk this week. I have made a selection of the photos posted through the week which you could view while listening to a short soundscape of the walk. The full production video for this walk is about twice the length at nine minutes and is a part of the StillWalks at Lliw collection.

The StillWalks at Lliw collection is available here to buy as a download or on disc.

Lliw Lower Reservoir

Lliw Reservoir Soundscape

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

My Walk this Week – Winter Times Past

This week I am looking back at a production walk I have presented before, which means you may recognise the photos I post this week. I’m not simply reusing the posts I wrote back then, but using new words with the photos to describe my memories of the walk.

This Winter we have had no snow to speak of at all – the five minute dusting I ran into on top of Graig Fawr on last weeks walk was the sum total of the snow we have had in our immediate vicinity this year. So before we fully engage with Spring and while the temperatures are still low, I thought it would be timely to take a look at what I think of as a proper winter walk.

Lliw Lower Reservoir is a popular place for people visit for a few different walks, all of which, naturally, circumnavigate either the lower reservoir or extend to the upper reservoir. My walk this week took me round the lower one where the footpath is tarmac on the eastern side and then a muddy narrow track back down the western side. However, none of those surfaces can be seen on this walk as the snow and ice were lying thick from start to finish.

Lliw Lower Reservoir

Lliw Lower Reservoir

My Walk this Week 23 – Hill Walk

When I started out on my walk this week I though it promised to be a bright and sunny walk. The mist was already lifting from the valley and my expectations felt fairly well founded. This will be shown at one point to have been optimistic – keep watching through this week.

My photos start about half way up one of our local hills, Graig Fawr, but my full walk rises from a few metres above sea level to 276 metres (905 ft) at the trig point at the highest point.

The photo below, of the view over the Loughor estuary towards the Gower Peninsula, was taken from where the trees are in the first shot and includes the 11 arched railway bridge but not the intrusive red logo of Tesco which I had great pleasure in cropping out, though annoyance at having to do so.

Graig Fawr Walk

The birds sounded as though they shared my optimism at the stage of my walk – listen below.

Graig Fawr Birds

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

My Walk this Week 22- Rhosilli Down

My walk this week features a walk I did exactly a year ago to the week and took me up onto Rhosilli Down at the end of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales. It was one of those increasingly rare days in February when the sun shines, albeit through a haze, the weight of which changed with the wind throughout the day.

The track leading up from the village of Rhosilli to the top of the ridge overlooking the bay is quite steep. Whilst ascending this was not a problem, descending it again at the end of the day was most definitely an issue – one which my knees complained about bitterly and had me inching down from the down at a snail’s pace.

The walk, however, was most enjoyable and although I did not find the time in 2015 to post produce this as a StillWalks video, I hope to do so this year and in the meantime bring  a sample of the place to my posts throughout this week.

Rhosilli Down