Identifying the Season

What identifies Winter for you? Answers in the comments please 😉

In Britain (SW Wales) we don’t expect to get winters like Canada or Norway or wherever. However, although I don’t expect snow, I do expect it to get a little bit cold from time to time through the season. This Winter has only brought wild winds, high tides and seemingly interminable rain!

No frost . . . No,  I tell a lie, there has been a hint of frost on two occasions where I live, but that is it. If I am able to get any StillWalks production done this Winter, it will have to reflect the wet weather we are getting. But wet weather is the most difficult in which to do photography and field recording. Not impossible, just very uncomfortable and a problem for the safety of the kit.

This weeks featured StillWalks video is from another kind of Winter. Not snowy, but there is a little frost and ice which can be heard underfoot as well as seen.

You can use the Donate button below to pay however much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Woodland Walk – Winter” which features Penllergaer Valley Woods near Swansea. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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Footsteps on the Boardwalk

This week’s featured StillWalks video is “Winter Lakeside Walk”. It shows Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmarthenshire, SW Wales. The video was produced last Winter. This year we have not had any cold weather (yet) and so I have not been able to enjoy the sound of my footsteps on the creaking boardwalk as it shifts on its struts in the frozen water in the marshes around the lake . . . but you can hear those sounds in this video.

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 Lakeside Walk” which features Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmartheshire. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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A Comparison of Stones and Shells in Time

A couple of weeks ago I posted photos from a similar position to the image you see below – Keeping Things in Perspective

Now, following the crazy weather and high tides that we have had in the south and west of the UK (to say nothing of the rest of the country), the landscape has been changed. The coast has seen massive stacks and arches disappear. Here in Swansea, the scene on the beach perhaps bears no comparison to those fallen stacks, but it is still notably different to that which I photographed a fortnight ago.

Hundreds of tons of stones now sit at the bottom of these steps where before there was a water filled trench. The solitary shell I photographed in the sand two weeks ago now has hundreds of companions.

Swansea Bay Stones

Swansea Bay ShellsSorry to those who expect it but there is no featured StillWalks video this week. It will be back next week.

Planes and Birds and Beautiful Weather

A beautiful saturday morning is not the best time to choose to go sound recording on the Gower Peninsula. Swansea airport may be small but when the weather is good at the weekend, it would seem there are plenty of aviators who want to get into their airplanes.

It wasn’t just the small planes that were out – the vapour trails in this photo prove the number of inbound flights to the UK first thing on a Saturday morning. They weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine. The sound clip below proves that the birds were out in force as well. Click to play or listen to it on SoundCloud.

Vapour Trails