The walk from Coedbach Park across the marshes to the old St Teilo’s churchyard is one of my local favourites. You can see it in the Old Churchyard Walk. The marshes on the River Loughor are tidal and therefore salty.
I don’t know what this sheep thinks about it all and I can’t say that it is specifically a Salt Marsh sheep but it is one of the flock from the marshes.
Given the recent news about the mix up of meats – beef? horse? – people may be looking at other meats at the moment and I know the salt marsh lamb I have tasted is pretty good stuff. One place to get it is Gower Salt Marsh Lamb. Whether it is meat or veg, I cannot recommend highly enough the taste of your own home grown or locally produced food.
I managed to get a short walk out at lunchtime on Friday – down to our local marshes. I hadn’t been there for a little while and was reminded of the StillWalks I have produced such as the Old Churchyard Walk (on the Summer Walks page). Despite the sound of traffic in the background, it still one of my favourite local walks.
This week I am going to focus on some of the images from that video but start with the couple of shots I took on my iPhone yesterday.
Potential StillWalk – the other day I took a walk down a footpath I hadn’t been to for a number of years, pre-StillWalks times. Looking with “new” eyes and listening with “new” ears was fascinating.
The sound of water – There can sometimes be a recording issue with the sounds of an environment that includes running water, i.e. a stream or river. The sounds of the flowing water can so easily drown out other sounds of the environment such as birds, and can become wearing if it is permanent.
However, the small Camffrwd River that the footpath follows did not present this problem. The sounds of the river ebbed and flowed in volume with the arrangement of rocks on its bed. The photos below are accompanied by some sound clips recorded on my iPhone, as were the photos.
Recording 4 birds ftstps stream The birds make their presence obvious as the sound of water is less dominant and the flow sounds change as I walk along the path.
Recording 5 walking stream This is a longer clip (2:15) which demonstrates very well the changing sound environment as I move along the path and river.
Unique sounds – All the sound clips and photos prove the need, in producing a StillWalk, to carry out the sound recording at the same time as the photography. The sounds on any day, at any time of day, at any time of year, will always be specific to conditions at the time . . . makes me think of the chaos theory and the interconnectedness of things! Chaos by James Gleick is a fascinating and very accessible book on this subject.