The dancing reflections of sunlight on puddles in an old reservoir overflow tunnel is just one of the watery effects to be found at The Waterside where my walk is this week.
It is not just the effects of water that creates the patterns and structures I am looking at in the images below, it is the interaction between the water and the sunlight that choreographs the changing rhythms of the light and shade. The interaction of draining waterContinue reading
My walk this week is somewhere I visit regularly. The first Friday of the month I go to The Waterside, Felindre where Sue and Steve Heatherington welcome all who come along for creative conversation. Sue has also been posting about water in the valley this past week at Sue Waterside!
You never know who you are going to meet but there are often faces I have become familiar with over the last couple of years. The conversation is often philosophical but also casual and so it is easy to talk. The place itself helps to prompt this and alongside Sue and Steve’s hospitality and their entertaining alpacas (yes, that’s right, alpacas!), this secluded Welsh valley is a fantastic place, whatever the weather, to clear the mind, explore and develop new thoughts and ideas and take a contemplative walk around the lake.Continue reading
My walk this week took me from light to dark in Brynmill Park in Swansea. I had visited the park on many previous occasions and so was interested in capturing some of the details of the place rather than a more open view of its land and waterscape.
It was good to start my short walk in the afternoon sunlight and watch the squirrels gathering their winter stores and the swans and ducks on the dark water of the lake, even though there was the most terrific fight between two of the ducks (not included in the soundscape below).Continue reading
Looking back from the bramble beginning by the road on my walk this week along the Tennant Canal near Swansea, South Wales, I can see and hear again some of the varied natural and industrial features of this environment that I enjoy so much.
I first discovered the beauty of this place on a guided walk with a bird specialist who worked his magic at identifying and translating all the birds and, seemingly, their conversations. The ability the human brain has for focusing our senses in different ways is remarkable but there is no questionContinue reading
My walk this week is along a section of the Tennant Canal on the eastern edge of Swansea. I have walked along this footpath on a few occasions, the last time being a couple of years ago and the conditions now are similar to what they were then.
Similar conditions does not mean I have taken the same photographs as last time, although the swans are still there and one posed perfectly for me while the other slept. Continue reading
The details of this Dorset garden, where my walk this week took place, show just the kind of garden I like – informal but with elements of intentional design.
It is a mistake, in my opinion, to try to control nature – nature will always come out on top in the end – but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy arranging different aspects of it in our gardens. That is how we end up with interesting collections of patterns and textures connecting the man-made with the moss, the rust with the rose hips. Continue reading
It may be a wet late Autumn on my walk this week through this Dorset garden but there is still colour (other than greens) to be found as well as some hidden reflections. Red, purple, yellow, white – all natural colours compared to the bright plastics in my previous post.
I love all the shades and tints of green as well, whether blurred in reflection or crisply in focus, the range is phenomenal. I have heard that we are more attuned, more perceptive of greens than any other colour – whether or not this is true, it is easy to believe.Continue reading
Exploring some details on my walk this week, I found growth and abandon simultaneously in this Dorset garden. Nature will always take over if given the chance and in the broken leg of an old swing, it found an ideal opportunity.
RGB or red, green and blue I found in the plastics which never disintegrate however long they are left while the patterns of rusty metal could tell or prompt any number of stories. You could weigh inContinue reading