600 Miles and a Short Walk

This week’s featured StillWalks video is from a place approximately 600 miles from where I live. So far, this winter has been very mild and wet in South West Wales. I imagine the season in Forres, North East Scotland, to have been more like that seen in the video.

The video features an area of woodland close to where my sister lives and the production for it was done on the only occasion I have been there (to date). I flew up with my eldest daughter for the funeral of Jane’s husband, Philip, who had had cancer. It was a sad occasion but I was pleased to be able to go and to see the area and wanted to take the opportunity to record something of it.

The video includes a shot of a Tree Creeper. It’s not a great shot but it was the only time I have actually seen the bird even though I know they are around in our own local woods.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Winter Woodland Walk” which features woods in Forres, North East Scotland. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Gnarled and Knuckled – The Determination of Trees

Trees amaze me sometimes with their determination to grow. So often I have seen fallen trees carry on growing regardless. This tree appears to be suffering from arthritis with bones and joints sticking out at awkward angles.

For all I love trees, I am not one to personalise or humanise them, but despite the strange growth patterns on this birch, I do not think it appears uncomfortable in its crooked shape. It seems to have been determined to grow enough to be able to see over those in front of it to the view over the Loughor Estuary and the Gower Peninsula.

Birch tree on Graig Fawr

Birch tree on Graig Fawr

Twisted Birch tree trunk

This week’s featured StillWalks video shows another representation of the woods in the previous featured video – the woods at Fforest in a snowy Winter.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Forest Walk – Summer” which is at Fforest, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Blown in the Wind

I love this tree! Blown in the wind and standing at one end of the “Show Field” by the marshes near Pontarddulais in South Wales, it is on the route of one of my regular and much loved walks.

Hendy is in the background, just across the other side of the Loughor Estuary. From another angle you could see Graig Fawr but the tree would not have this shape. To see the view of this landscape from Graig Fawr, visit the post from a few days ago – “Looking Over the Landscape”.

The photos were taken and edited on my iPhone using PhotoShop Express with some final adjustments in Adobe Lightroom. Click the images to enlarge.

Pontarddulais Tree

wind blown Tree

Wind blown tree - blue

This week’s featured StillWalks video started out as an experiment to see if I could produce an acceptable video using only my iPhone 4s to take the photos and record the sound. Here is the result – Forest Walk – Summer”

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Forest Walk – Summer” which is at Fforest, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Looking Across the Land – Pontarddulais and the Loughor Estuary

Pontarddulais from Graig Fawr
Pontarddulais from Graig Fawr

This week’s featured StillWalks video started out as an experiment to see if I could produce an acceptable video using only my iPhone 4s to take the photos and record the sound. Here is the result – Forest Walk – Summer”

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Forest Walk – Summer” which is at Fforest, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Misty Walk, Gower

This week’s featured StillWalks video is “Misty Walk”. The title tells you a bit about what to expect.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Misty Walk” which is at Ryers Down on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Going Backwards – One More from the Park

I am pleased to say that I am not actually going backwards – at least I hope not! Just leaving Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea until I have worked on other StillWalks productions from earlier in the year.

And below is the final sound clip I recorded before leaving the park. Are these squirrels or jays? I know they can sound similar and I know there were plenty of squirrels around but I saw no Jays at all. Also available on SoundCloud.

Cwmdonkin Park

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Abertawe Walk” which is along the cycle path alongside the River Tawe going into Swansea, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Cwmdonkin Park

Time and Temptation

At the rate I am going it may be next Autumn before I get the StillWalks video wrapped up from the production day I had in Cwmdonkin Park recently. The temptation is always to work on post production as soon as possible after the production walk but this does not often happen.

The number of StillWalks videos pending is mounting but there are only 24 hours in each day and you can’t spend all of them on one task. What I need is a time stretcher! 🙂 Hopefully I will be able to catch up over the next couple of months and expand the existing StillWalks video collection with several new ones from Spring, Summer and Autumn 2013.

Completing the Cwmdonkin video is a priority in this respect as next year is the anniversary of Dylan Thomas’ birth and there is a strong association between him, his poetry and the park.

Cwmdonkin Park

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Abertawe Walk” which is along the cycle path alongside the River Tawe going into Swansea, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button

Time for a Break

I need to take a short break from posting here – so I hope you miss me for a few days, maybe up to a week. The featured StillWalks video is still here and will be tomorrow, and of course, you can always see other samples via the menu. Orders can still be made for  DVD Collections in the StillWalks Shop and don’t forget the tapestries on the Etsy Shop.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “After the Tide” which is from the marshes on the Loughor Estuary, South wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Paypal button