Ducks and People

Parks always have duck – yes? Parks with a pond do anyway. My walk this week around Brynmill Park in Swansea has not, until now, revealed either ducks or people other than aurally. So here is the visual proof . . . and a bit more sound to accompany it.

duck

Ducks Washing

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Heard But Not Seen

I don’t really know how I managed to get these photos without any people in them! The sound clip gives the evidence for plenty of people, children and adults, being there. The railings in this first shot surround the lake in Brynmill Park in Swansea and are near the Discovery Centre which has an ice cream counter amongst other things.

As often as not the tops of the railings are lined with pigeons but on this quite busy day they were more often to be seen in flight than at rest.

park railings

Another Sneeze in the Park

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Bouncing Balls and Babies – Sounds of the Park

If you were only to look at the images below, the scene in Brynmill Park, Swansea might appear quite tranquil, but the park is full of all sorts of sounds let alone the background ambience of the city. Bouncing balls and babies are just a couple of the elements to the park’s soundscape but I will be posting a more comprehensive edited recording of the sound landscape at the end of the week.

Brynmill Park, Swansea

Bouncing Balls and Babies

Unlike yesterday’s post, I can name at least a couple of the flowers in the photos below.

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Lakeside Patterns and Colours

My walk this week in Brynmill Park, Swansea allowed me to see some fabulous patterns and colours. I particularly liked this quite dark reflection of these huge grass-like plants. Sorry I can’t give you the botanical information on my surroundings but while that is certainly of interest to me, I cannot say that, if told either the common or latin names, I would remember them. I will, however, remember the patterns and colours of this corner of the lake in the park.

lakeside reflections

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Hereford Cityscape – Reviewing the Walk

Back at the start of my walk this week and you can listen to the soundscape while viewing the images. The image below shows two parts of the same alleyway – despite the graffiti the walkthrough is kept pretty clean.

Hereford walkway

Hereford City Walk Soundscape

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Features of the Modern Cityscape

Returning towards the starting point of my walk this week I passed All Saints Church of England church (which is also a cafe) and admired the stonework of the architecture. The patterns and textures of old stone combined with the insertion of more recent stone worked well for me. I was going to take a detail shot of some of the patterns and as I was selecting my angle a person slipped into the frame and huddled in the corner of the church for a smoke.

This is a distinct feature of any modern cityscape in Britain today – individuals or small groups of smokers huddling in corners to keep out of the wind or rain – it seems to me to defeat the purpose and is what enabled me to give up after our first child was born. Giving up smoking is not an easy thing to do but going outside every time I wanted a cigarette certainly helped me to do so. Good luck to those of you who are trying.

Church wall and smoker

Church wall and smoker

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Ignoring the Signs – Walls, Flowers and Brickwork

Not so much ignoring the signs as cropping them out – all these photos required me to either choose an angle or make a crop that avoided the inevitable street signs for restricted parking, no entry, and restricted access. I couldn’t avoid the cars and I didn’t want to avoid the peeling paint of the gable end brick wall to this building of formal design that is typical of this part of Hereford City centre.

I like the patterns, colours and textures of the wall at least as much as I do the flower displays.

Hereford City Walk-17

Hereford Houses

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Cathedral in Bronze

Reaching the end (or the entrance) of Church Street on my walk this week around Hereford city centre, I took another of many looks at the cathedral. In front of the building is a paved area with a brick mosaic design set into it. While this is interesting, I was much more intrigued by the unusual bronze model of Hereford set on a plinth near the cathedral gates.

Taking a closer look at some of the architectural details of the cathedral could take a long time (which I didn’t have) as the building is so intricate in its embellishments.I wasn’t just taken with the designs created by the stone masons, but also with the patterns and textures of the stones themselves. Presumably these have been produced when cutting the blocks for building.

I’ll be able to take another look at the interior of the cathedral next week, not for the purpose of posting on this blog but for my younger daughter’s graduation from Hereford College of Art – well done Hannah – you can see her work at hannahduncancreations.com.

Hereford in Bronze

Hereford in Bronze

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