Still Travelling but Walking in Circles

Posted on 21/02/201819/02/2018 by Alastair

Still in York on my walk this week I found myself getting lost! I wasn’t actually lost in that I knew where I was, but I could not find the place I was looking for. I was full of a rotten cold and blame this for being unable to read the sat nav map I tried using on my phone to navigate on my walk to the required shop. I started out from the car park at Clifford’s Tower and passed by St. Mary’s church but then ended up going round and round in circles in the intricate layout of small central streets and passages.

I did a better job of finding my way to meet my niece and walk with her back to my parents’ house. While waiting I found the these gates of interest Continue reading→

Herded by Cows and a Squall

Posted on 16/02/201813/02/2018 by Alastair

At the start of my walk this week I mentioned my caution regarding cows and how I cut off across the top of the hill to avoid them. But they were having none of that and following a sudden squall of hailstones I was persuaded yet again to take an alternative route back down the hill.

The fast changing weather provided me with a range of lighting effects and I found myself blinded by the light one moment and then wowed by the hailing clouds over Swansea Bay the next. It was still very cold and although this wasn’t a long walk,Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – A Sprinkling of Winter

Posted on 12/02/201811/02/2018 by Alastair

We rarely get any snow in the small town where I live and so when I awoke to find a thin Winter sprinkling in the garden, I assumed that there would be more of it all around us on higher ground and I prepared to take a walk later in the morning.

So I was surprised to find naked trees and moorland when I set off up one of the hills in the lower reaches of the Mawr, the upland area just north of Swansea. No white blankets to be seen,Continue reading→

Looking and Listening Seats for the Landscape

Posted on 31/01/201827/01/2018 by Alastair

The attractively designed benches situated along my walk this week at the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW) are ideal facilities for looking at and listening to the surrounding landscape.

At the moment I am focusing on the looking rather than the listening. It wasn’t actually raining on the walk but the ground was very wet from recent weather . . . as were the seats. Everything in fact, looked Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Misty and Bright

Posted on 15/01/201812/01/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is a long awaited bright one, albeit misty at the start. It was cold and bit frosty but the sun was rising and as my elevation increased with a climb up a local hill, I was able to look down on the fog laying the valley below.

It was a beautiful morning only marred by the level of fly tipping on the slopes beside the Dulais River 😡 What is wrong with the people that do this? Apart from the damage it does to the environment, wildlife and oceans, are they also blind?Continue reading→

Swiss Valley Water – Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 12/01/201804/01/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week up to Swiss Valley Reservoir was a very wet one, but also a very enjoyable one despite the amount of water (except for the fact that my umbrella kept collapsing on me!).

Please note: I need to let you know that my weekly posts are going to change slightly – from here on there will be no post on Saturday. I am cutting My Weekly Walk posts to Monday, Wednesday and Friday with the soundscape for the walks being posted on the Friday. Further cuts may be necessary in the future.

I took the walk later in the day than expected and in combination with the wet weather, this meant it was another walk that started out dark and became darker and darker as I followed the riverside footpath up the ravine. By the time I reached the reservoir (not very far) the scene was as you see it in the image above.Continue reading→

Valley Frost Revealed – Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 30/12/201721/12/2017 by Alastair

When I arrived at this viewpoint near the start of my walk this week, the valley was filled with a thick fog. Now, having had a peaceful walk through the forest, the valley is revealed, and it is cold with frost.

In a couple of my posts about this walk I have described the woodland as peaceful, and indeed it was. The background sound of traffic on the motorway is almost always there but there are a few pockets of peacefulness that allow virtually complete escape from that sound.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – The Golden Light of Dawn

Posted on 25/12/201721/12/2017 by Alastair

The day felt cold but looked good for my walk this week with the mist and the golden light of dawn. The natural colouring in the image below makes it look like an old photo, I think, with its sepia tones, but in fact nothing has been done to it other than a fairly restrained crop. I posted it on Instagram and Facebook and it got a few likes, but here it is again.

I started out on my walk from my garden, looking through the hedge to a “red sky in the morning”, as the old adage goes. I needed no warning about the weather though, as I was going for a walk in the woods anyway.

Regular followers of the StillWalks blog should be becoming familiar with the woodland that is the feature of this walk. Hopefully I am able to shed a different light on it each time I visit. Of course it is the light of the sun and the time of year or day that changes the look and feel of any location and on this occasion the woodland dawn was . . . hmm, can you have a muted spectacle? It was spectacular and though muted by the mist, this only made it even more magical.Continue reading→

Tag Archives: trees