Clearing Cloud – Revealing the Landscape

Posted on 18/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

Clearing cloud – yes! Just as I started to head back down the mountain, having decided that the mist was not going to lift and my walk this week would not have the potential views of Wales’ mountains and valleys that I had hoped for, the sun broke through and the scene below me was revealed. I was so pleased 🙂 and in awe at the views.

The walk / climb to this point had been . . . mmm . . . atmospheric. However, despite the mist it had still been very enjoyable. But to be able to look at the other mountains around me and the valleys below is always a wonder that cannot be experienced on a screen. Having said that I will of course endeavour to produce a StillWalks video from this walk that goes some way to presenting the experience and hopefully draws people in to join me in my memories of it.

Clearing Cloud

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Clearing Cloud

Mountain track

Mountain and Cloud

Monochrome Mountain and Cloud

Mountainside

Looking over the edge

Tal-y-Clun

Ascending Further

Posted on 17/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

Ascending further along my misty mountain route on my walk this week, the landscape below me may have been obscured but the colours and patterns in the path-side rocks could still clearly be seen, albeit less bright than would have been the case in sunshine.

Almost at the top I sheltered from the wild wind in a hollow at the side of the mountain track and recorded the blustering wind and the plaintive bleats of distant sheep and began to despair at the possibility of getting the views I had hoped for.

Colour and pattern

Mountain Wind

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

colourful rock

Colour and pattern

Looking down through the mist

Mountain track

Descending Mist

Posted on 16/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

Having started my walk this week in the forest at the foot of Mynydd Rugog, I clambered out of the woods and onto the side of the mountain to find mist slowly descending from the summit. I followed and old fence and wall directly up to the track that zig zags up from a farm down by the road and though as long as I can clearly see the path I’ll carry on.

Mist descended

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

old fence wire

rust coloured stone

Descending mist

Thistle

mountain wildflowers

Mountain mist

Mist and grass

My Walk this Week – Misty Mountains

Posted on 15/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

On this first day of my walk this week the mountain mist does not come down to this level – the sun was even shining at times. I had hoped for reasonable weather for my StillWalks production walk up Mynydd Rugog, a mountain just south of Cadair Idris and overlooking Tal-y-Llyn in the mountains north of Aberystwyth in Wales.

A style of gate

There had been a lot of rain over the previous couple of days and the rivers running through the forest were in spate.

Mountain Woodland Wind and Water

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

A style of gate

Foxgloves by the footpath

stone edge

stone at entrance (to forest)

Rushing Woodland River

Looking Over Corris – Reviewing the Walk

Posted on 31/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

Back to my car again and looking over Corris where I have been walking this week, I was hopeful that the rain that was still falling at 5.30 AM had finished for the day and that I would be able to climb the mountain for my StillWalks production walk.

As it happens, it did not rain again but the route I ended up taking up the mountain was not my original planned path and was fairly arduous. On top of that (or the mountain), the mist came down and so the video I produce from it will be a “Misty Mountain Walk”.

Overlooking Corris

Sorry again that there is no soundscape this week. I hope you can still enjoy the images below without it.

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Hostel

Corris street

Afon Deri

Railings pattern

Morris railway station

cemetery in the mountains

railing decoration

Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

Tafarn – Tŷ Bwyta

Overlooking Corris

Eating and Art

Posted on 30/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

One of the places I wanted to check out on my walk around Corris was Stiwdio Maelor. It was closed when I was there but works of art were in the windows and as there is a long list of artists in residence for 2016 on the website, the artists may simply have been out and about in the mountain landscape. You can find out about the residency scheme for artists on the website and I am sure that any artists reading this that don’t already know of Stiwdio Maelor will be very tempted by it.

Whether artist or not, just round the corner from the gallery/studio is the local tavern to tafarn in Welsh. Imm sorry to say that it being first thing in the morning, I was not able to try it out but I heard good things from the owner of the hostel up the road.

Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Stiwdio Maelor – Liz Doyle

Stiwdio Maelor – Mita Solanky

Tafarn – Tŷ Bwyta

Morris wall

Under the Mountains

Posted on 28/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

In a place like Corris, situated in the deep valleys amongst or under the mountains in Wales, there is no horizon to be seen. Seeing as how I love trees so much and they cover the mountains on all sides, I shouldn’t have a problem with this, and I don’t!

Recently I was at an artist’s talk – Lee Williams at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea – where he was exploring the notion that we are affected by our surrounding environment. This is a subject I have thought about for many years but it is hard to come to any definitive conclusions about whether or not the topographical element of our living environments influence the way we are or the way we behave as there are always so many other contributing factors. Those mentioned in Lee’s discourse at the link above relate to Port Talbot which has the best and worst of worlds in its beautiful mountains next to the sea and its heavy industry and pollution.

It could be argued that the people of Corris, while enjoying the wonderful moubtain-scape of their surroundings, also have to suffer what most would consider an abnormal amount of rainfall. Ah well, you can’t have it all I guess.

cemetery in the mountains

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

cemetery in the mountains

Corris road

Corris bench

Corris wall

Visiting Corris and its Narrow Guage Railway

Posted on 27/07/201625/07/2016 by Alastair

My walk this week was my first visit to Corris in the Welsh mountains. I have passed it on the main road often enough but never had the opportunity to stop. It is a beautiful place even when wet and now that I have had a look around, I know that there is a narrow gauge steam railway to be enjoyed.

I wasn’t able to take advantage of this feature as I had other plans for a StillWalks production walk up the mountain above Corris Uchaf and overlooking Tal-y-Llyn but if you are planning a holiday in the area . . .