My walk this week featured a range of mixed media. From the natural mossy trees in perspective and their shadows on buildings to a classical architectural foreground with a more modernist tower in the background; the intricacy of sculptures and the simplicity of the structures within walls along with urban pedestrian functionality. It makes for quite a mixed bag and all to be seen within a hundred yards or so in the centre of Cardiff City.
My walk around Cardiff this week encompassed not only the classical cultural architecture of the National Museum and adjacent municipal buildings – it also included the brutalist concrete architecture of the University of Wales buildings situated in the same block. The area is interspersed with beautiful formal gardens but it is not this that I was focusing on during this walk – I also get great enjoyment from looking at the various patterns, textures and perspectives created by the architects.
Looking down the perspective of this twisting trickle of water from the top of the footpath leading up from the entrance to the National Botanic Garden of Wales where I have been walking this week, I am reminded of how much our two daughters enjoyed this place when it opened and they were young children. This stream of water and other features along the way created endless fun for them to the point where one of them said it was her favourite place in Wales!
Walking through the double walled garden at the National Botanic Garden of Wales I focused not on the walls but on one or two of the other features. My choices were largely influenced by the light and two of these were the simple and beautiful design of the seat in front of bamboos and the thistle seed heads.
My choice for the first image in this post is however not in the double walled garden but just outside it.
Another small detour I took from the suburban footpath I have been walking along this week took me to the Afon Lliw. This is a river I have studied in detail – to be accurate I should say that I have documented children studying the flow in detail . . . from source to sea. The project I was involved in was Our River and you can see all eight chapters of the videos made here on the StillWalks website.
My walk this week was longer than I had originally intended and I think that is partly the result of the straight path I was on. Even where the path was not straight, the bend was long and gentle and my memory of it from a number of years ago was not clear enough for me not to want to see round the bend. The result was that the sun was pretty low in the sky on my return.
Fallen Autumn leaves were well spread out on the ground underfoot on my walk this week around the enterprise zone lake in Swansea and it was a pleasure to walk through them. The soundscape around the lake held the things you might expect in this environment including the voices of various ducks, geese, swans, gulls and other birds.
Continuing on my walk this week around an urban lakeside I found that low angle shots often provided the best viewpoint. Looking at things from another viewpoint often provides a different understanding of the subject and allows you to see things you might otherwise have ignored and passed by.
