Bouncing Balls and Babies – Sounds of the Park

Posted on 14/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

If you were only to look at the images below, the scene in Brynmill Park, Swansea might appear quite tranquil, but the park is full of all sorts of sounds let alone the background ambience of the city. Bouncing balls and babies are just a couple of the elements to the park’s soundscape but I will be posting a more comprehensive edited recording of the sound landscape at the end of the week.

Bouncing Balls and Babies

Unlike yesterday’s post, I can name at least a couple of the flowers in the photos below.

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Fuchsia

Day Lily

My Walk this Week – Brynmill Park

Posted on 12/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

My walk this week was taken on a day that held a number of meetings for me, not least the Swansea Walking Forum meeting in Brynmill Park. Having a gap between other meetings in the morning, I was able to take my camera and sound kit around the lakeside and found the place being well used during the school Summer holidays.

You can’t tell from these shots how well the park is used but perhaps the sound clip below will prove the existence of people (and traffic) in this city park.

A Sneeze in the Park

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Wigtown Bay and Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 11/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

Back down at sea level again in Wigtown Bay after my walk this week to Cairnholy chambered tombs, the weather has not improved. But you don’t visit Scotland for the sunshine and if anything the damp weather just added to the experience in the Galloway hills.

I am afraid there is no soundscape this week – back to normal next week.

Wigtown Bay Weather

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Cairnholy woodland

Cairnholy

Cairnholy chambered tomb

Scottish landscape

Cairnholy 2

Cairnholy 2 entrance

Looking out

Wigtown Bay Weather

From Inside and Outside

Posted on 10/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

With a final look across the landscape from inside Cairnholy chambered tomb and a last look back at its standing stones, we descended back down the lane through woodland to the car. If you are ever in Galloway, StillWalks Scotland and enjoy the neolithic era of burial architecture, this is a site worth visiting. Don’t let bad weather put you off, it’s worth it in the rain as well as the sunshine.

Looking out

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Looking out

Stone Character and Looking Inside the Tomb

Posted on 09/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

Looking at the second chambered tomb of Cairnholy on my walk this week in Galloway, SW Scotland and facing east (approximately), the covered chamber takes on the appearance of an oriental character in stone. I don’t speak Chinese or Japanese so have no idea if the chamber’s form seen from this angle actually does resemble anything in those languages, but it seems to have an essence of it. However, I imagine this is completely coincidental.

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Cairnholy 2

Posted on 08/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

Continuing up the hill on my walk this week we found the second Cairnholy chambered tomb site. There are not so many standing stones arranged around this burial chamber but the profile of it against the cloudy sky made for a strong composition.

Cairnholy 2

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Cairnholy 2

Cairnholy 2 entrance

Cairnholy Landscape

Posted on 07/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

Having said that the weather could have been better on my walk this week, today I am posting the proof. The view from Cairnholy chambered tomb on the Galloway coast in Scotland would be pretty good if it weren’t for the clouds and rain – but there you go, that’s Scotland (or perhaps I should say the UK) in these days of unpredictable seasons.

On a more positive note, the landscape did not loose any of its atmosphere or colour as a result of the weather and it seemed to make it easier (though I don’t know why it should) to imagine people there in neolithic times.

Seaview

A Place to Lie – Neolithic Chambered Tomb

Posted on 06/09/201631/08/2016 by Alastair

It was tempting to lie down in the neolithic chambered tomb at Cairnholy but it felt like it might be dishonouring the place somehow – I would also have had to have been quite short. My walk this week to visit both the tombs at Cairnholy was well worth it even though the weather was coming in around us by the time we were up there. It didn’t stop me trying a few different perspectives on the standing stones at the entrance to the tomb but raindrops on the lens did create a bit of a challenge.