Ruins in the Woods

The ruined stone wall hidden in amongst the trees of Cwm Nash Woods was a surprise find –  for me at least. The wall belongs to an old mill beside the Ffynnon Marl river. The StillWalks production walk I did with Dr Cathy Treadaway as part of the “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing” research project, was done without a recce walk beforehand.

I had been asked to go along with a completely fresh eye (and ear). I don’t normally do this because there are distinct production advantages to checking out the lie of the land beforehand. However, whether the walk is done as a recce or as a production, new surroundings are always exciting to explore and Cwm Nash absolutely “came up to the mark” for me as a new discovery.

Old Mill in Cwm Nash

Cwm Nash Woodland

Ffynnon Marl river

 

 

 

Cwm Nash Woodland

These photos are from a woodland on Bristol Channel coast of South Wales. I know the area in the Vale of Glamorgan from working there on a  project a few years ago, but I had not been to this particular spot before.

The images form part of a new StillWalks video I was asked to produce as part of a research project being run by Dr Cathy Treadaway for CARIAD at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The project – “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing” – is very much in keeping with my StillWalks philosophy and the video will be available to view at the end of this week.

Cwm Nash

Cwm Nash

Cow Parsley

 

 

 

The Second Surprise

My second surprise find in the old burnt out abandoned building I found while crossing a field on a recent evening walk were these old cars. I have some enquiries to make in order to find out what the car is. I thought about an MG Midget and a friend suggested a Sunbeam but if anyone out there recognises it as something else, please let me know in the comments.

rusty car

rusty corrugated iron

Abandoned in a Field

It wasn’t just thistles in this field (see previous post). This abandoned and burnt out building held one or two surprises.

A tangled mass of rusty corrugated iron was the first.

abandoned building

Rusty corrugated iron

wire and rusty metal

 

Light, Shade and Colour

It was the shadow of the stamens on the petals that I really like about these shots of another beautiful flower from Swansea’s roadside verges. I like the contrast in the first image and the subtlety of the same shadow in more muted sunlight in the second.

Swansea roadside flowers

Swansea roadside flowers

Cat in the Garden

This may be a very pretty cat, but remembering the dead baby blackbird I found in the garden a few days ago,  is he the culprit? Either way, he was enjoying the sun until he spotted me!

Cat

Cat

Cats whiskers

Teenage Blackbird

We have had Blackbirds in our garden every year for many years now but this year there are more than ever. A family of 5 lost one of their crew to one of the local cat recently but its youngest sibling is still around and enjoying the seed we put out for it and the other birds.

You can still see the yellow border to its beak showing that perhaps calling it a teenager is going a little beyond its age.

I like nothing better than to watch and listen to them outside my studio door. Below is one of the recordings I made of Blackbirds a couple of years ago.

Teenage Blackbird

Teenage Blackbird

Teenage Blackbird