My Walk this Week 200 – Overlooking the Landscape from Paxton’s Tower

Posted on 27/03/202024/03/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week was in a location carefully selected to not have many other people around – Paxton’s Tower in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Please remember that these blog posts are not intended to prompt you to go out during this difficult time with the Coronavirus, but rather to bring the outside in and hopefully help with some of the difficulties of confinement. For more free StillWalks® resources visit my previous post.

It was a beautiful day and the views from the hill on top of which Paxton’s Tower sits were also beautiful. The photos below look in all geographical directions as well as up at and up in the tower. There are some details too – signs of Spring and the patterns and textures of the full cycle of life.

Can you see the horned creature leaping out of the dead tree? Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 191 – Frost and a Songthrush

Posted on 24/01/202003/02/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week features frost and a song thrush who seemed oblivious to the cold and sang in the sunshine as though it were already Spring.

It isn’t Spring yet by any means, but there are signs that it will follow on eventually and it is so good to hear the birds singing on a bright day.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 148 – Summer in Winter on the South Coast

Posted on 01/03/201927/02/2019 by Alastair

My walk this week takes place on a Summer day in Winter on the south coast of England. It was mid-February but the temperature reached over 20 degrees celsius!

Staying overnight on the seafront in Worthing, we awoke to a beautiful, bright day and took time for a walk along the stony beach with its ageing, bleached wood groynes. The garish colours of a multi-storey car park on the road side were followed through and improvedContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 131 – Sticks Shadows and Shapes

Posted on 31/10/201829/10/2018 by Alastair

The sun created some interesting shadows on my walk this week along the beach in Swansea Bay. Light, as sculptor, had worked with the conditions left by the weather previous to the ebb of the tide. The materials were clusters of sticks and scattered individual twigs. The art created was both three and two dimensional and the one without the other would not, could not, have had the effect on shape and form that the specific conditions provided.

It was the clusters of sticks that initially interested me, gathered together as though they were abandoned nests. On noticing these and then an individual stick and its shadow, I couldn’t help but notice more and more of them. Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 131 – Swansea Bay Shells

Posted on 29/10/201827/10/2018 by Alastair

The shells have it in my walk this week on the beach in Swansea Bay – big ones, little ones and multiply connected ones. A beautiful day and some much needed space – there would have been peace as well if it hadn’t been for a light aircraft performing aerobatics overhead. But that was quite an interesting sound, and anyway, as I walked down the beach the sound of the waves masked that in the sky. I’ll post the soundscape on Friday as usual.

One of the best things about Swansea Bay is the expanse of beach when the tide is out and that space was just what I wanted on this morning. There were plenty of other people about enjoying the sunshine and sand (and indeed the blue sky above), but none of that hemmed in any individual and everyone was able to wander the shore in relative solitude and enjoy it in their own way.Continue reading→

Shadows On a Spring day

Posted on 27/04/201820/04/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week has looked at art, craft, design and now, having come back outside on a beautiful Spring day in Leeds city centre, I am looking at shadows. Standing on the steps of the Leeds Art Gallery and looking down on Victoria Square the subject matter of my photography (iPhonography) was obvious. The patterns of light and shade created by such a bright day stood out in strong contrast against both the warm coloured paving stones and the strong blue of the sky.

The shot I took of the pattern of tree branches on the pavement confused me at first. I thought it was out of focus, until I saw on closer inspection that while the tree trunk shape close to the ground and cracks between the paving slabs were in focus,Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Art and Design in Leeds

Posted on 23/04/201823/04/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week in Leeds is my vehicle for showcasing my daughter’s work as a jewellery artist – Hannah Duncan Creations. I say “artist” because the work she designs is her means of expression, but she is a great craftsperson as well. The collection she delivered recently to the Craft Centre and Design Gallery includes work based on the rocky coastlines of Britain and in some pieces the very sand from the beaches forms a part of the work.

The image below is an example of Hannah’s work and if you would like to see more please visit her website at Hannah Duncan Creations.

Hannah Duncan Creations

Our recent travels to York (see last weeks walk posts) allowed us to help Hannah out and visit Leeds on our way home. The day was beautifully sunny and our walk to the City Art Gallery and the Design Centre below it was brightContinue reading→

My Walk this Week – City Sunshine

Posted on 09/04/201807/04/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is around a small central area of city of Bristol next to Temple Meads railway station. I had been for an interview with the Theo Moorman Charitable Trust for an award of funding towards developing new work in my tapestry weaving – the application was successful I am pleased to say.

It was a sunny day and my next appointment for the day was later in the day in Newport where I ended up with another short walk – see last week’s posts. So I took the opportunity to have a little explore of theContinue reading→

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