In any Welsh woodland you are unlikely to be far from the sound of running water – or any other part of Wales for that matter, woodland or not. Penllergare Valley Woods is no exception and on my walk this week, I could have recorded any number of water sounds.
The sound from the stretch of river seen below was quite gentle but it is by no means always like this.
River Sound
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There are people hidden in this first photo today from my walk this week at Penllergare Valley Woods – you can just see them near the centre of the image. They are enjoying the area on the river where the waterfall from the lake flows over the rock arrangement constructed by John Dillwyn Llewellyn back in the 19th century when he was developing the original valley gardens.
The colour of the rhododendrons in this image is accompanied by foxgloves below, and then there is the beautiful yellow of buttercups in a marshy looking meadow displaying the lushness of the environment at this time of year.
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My walk this week takes me back to Penllergare Valley Woods. I have produced StillWalks videos of all four seasons here but that is no reason not to take another look. In this walk the conditions are inevitably different and as well as that, further work has been done in the park by The Penllergare Trust volunteers.
I don’t remember this arbour and arch being here perviously and of course, the next time I visit, it will have grown more and changed again.
I wil be posting just one or two sound clips from the woods through this week, but I have a soundscape for the walk to post on Sunday with the walk review.
Penllergare Woodland Sounds
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It was a nice sunny day for my walk this week, though I still had my umbrella with me as an encumbrance. My final view of the walk was looking across Swansea Bay from the dunes to Mumbles and its lighthouse.
I have included a soundscape again this week to accompany my selection of images from the walk. Click the play button and then the first thumbnail to view the images in sequence.
Tawe Walk Soundscape
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Almost back to my car parked on the seafront next to Swansea’s docks and SA1 area, my walk this week leaves the boats and buildings of the Maritime Quarter behind and ends in the dunes.
Looking out to the Tawe river mouth and dock entrance I couldn’t decide which photo to post out of these first two. I like them both – the first for the clear pattern and tapering shapes of the sea wall with the blurred foreground. The other I like for its crisp focus on the grasses in the foreground with the blurred sea wall in the distance.
Of course the answer was to post both! Which one do you prefer?
Having come full circle and arrived back at the blue footbridge and lock on my walk this week around part of the maritime quarter of Swansea, I focused my attention on the bridge and lock rather than the churning water of the river falling over the weir (see Monday’s post).
Patterns, sound and movement can be seen below in a mixture of photos and video taken on both my Canon and iPhone cameras.
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This sign and its distorted reflection may say “No Fishing”, but the next photo below shows that there are fishing boats just round the corner from this entry point to the inner marina at Swansea.
The other vessels in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter range from small to large sailing and motor boats of all types. The modern catamaran and the older style of sailing vessel below suggest something of this range – and all of the owners rely on the security the marina offers to keep them safe. However, I was a little taken aback when I saw the razor wire!
Lapping Water
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It was a good day for my walk this week and the local rowing club obviously though it was good for them as well. They rowing up and down the river regularly – I don’t know how high up the river they go but in the past I have seen them up near the Liberty Stadium at Morfa where I enjoyed my walk last week.
I wasn’t able to capture the sounds of the rowers as well as take these photos but one of the sounds I did record at this stage of my walk can be heard below.
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