Witch Hazel in a Late Afternoon Landscape

Posted on 02/02/201829/01/2018 by Alastair

The light was diminishing on my walk this week at the NBGW but the late afternoon still revealed some good views and wonderful details. One of my particular favourites in this respect was the Witch Hazel. The Botanic Garden of Wales has many of these and at this time of year they are blossoming with their beautifully coloured and wacky flowers – the colours make me think of the cocktail, Tequila Sunrise!

There was also a crooked oak tree that looked as though it was using one of its own fallen branches as a crooked walking stick to hold itself up. It reminded me of this old rhyme: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 – Landscape Ageing and Restoration

Posted on 29/01/201826/01/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is from the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW), though it turned out not to be the walk we had expected as the Pont Felin Gat woodland was closed off to the public for clearance / restoration work. The images show one of the existing lakes in the gardens as well as the site of another lake from the past. This is being restored but in the meantime the landscape of tree stumps creates some fascinating patterns, textures and colours.

So we followed the “blue” walk instead and climbed past old farm buildings which also look in need of restoration. Again, the colours, patterns and textures revealedContinue reading→

Campus Walk Sun Rays and Soundscape

Posted on 26/01/201824/01/2018 by Alastair

I finished my walk this week with the sun shining out from behind the clouds and the seagulls wheeling as though this was a revelation – and indeed, when this happens it can feel like that! On this occasion the event was perhaps less dramatic than it can be sometimes, but suffering from the cold, biting wind as I was, it was good to see the gulls enjoying themselves, though they are not a feature of the soundscape.

As I walked back through the university’s Bay Campus the construction of new buildings continued, but the lads playing basketball paid no heed to the skeletal buildings, the noise of cranes and jack hammers or the biting windContinue reading→

Natural and Man-Made

Posted on 24/01/201822/01/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week took me through Swansea University’s Bay Campus to the open view it has of the expansive Swansea Bay. The combination of the natural and man-made had a number of crossover points – one of these was how cold it was with the wind chill coming off the sea, exposed as I was both in the open and amongst the buildings.

Other overlaps of the natural and man made came in the birdlife and young trees planted around the buildings, the moat-like sea defences (I suspect that, one day, these will not be enough), the rusting structure of an old disused outlet pipe onto the beach, and the industrial view looking east to Port Talbot.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – An Angle on Nature and Construction

Posted on 22/01/201819/01/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week was slightly unexpected. I had gone to explore the docks area in Swansea Bay but found no access due to gates and security fencing. However, as I moved on I found a footpath edging a part of Swansea University Bay Campus still under construction. On one side of the path I enjoyed the effect of perspective on the site fence, while on the other the textures I found in the bare nature of the season.

So while I had expected an industrial walk in the docks, instead I got a mixture of nature and man made construction. The nature was partly in the form of a bitterly cold wind for whichContinue reading→

Out of the Light and Into a Rhododendron Tunnel

Posted on 19/01/201812/01/2018 by Alastair

Having risen towards the sunlight at the start of this walk, I then had to descend again, and in doing so took a route that led me through a natural tunnel rhododendron tunnel.

This is the final part of my walk this week and a slight change of format. I am no longer going to post a review of the walk each week so if you want top see the rest of the walk you will have to visit the two previous posts.

The tunnel is dark but feels fabulous and the middle of it is the quietest section of the walk. While the images below cover only the last part of this walk, the soundscape is from the whole walk which starts and ends with the sounds of the Dulais River or Afon Dulais.Continue reading→

Sunlight, Sheep and Fog

Posted on 17/01/201812/01/2018 by Alastair

Gaining the top of the hill on my walk this week from fog to sunlight, I was followed by a flock of hopeful sheep looking expectantly at me – I suspect the farmer was due or perhaps the sheep though he was overdue!

My route took me past familiar objects both natural and man made. The rhododendrons perhaps have an element of both – they are natural but not native to the UK and can take over a whole hillside as they have in this location.Continue reading→

Tag Archives: walks