open landscape

My Walk this Week 160 – Changing Forest

upper forest footpath

upper forest footpath

Changing Forest – My walk this week is one I have been putting off for a few months. This is due to the knowledge that the coniferous area of the woodland was being harvested. I always knew that the trees would be felled some day, and the red paint markings on some of them was evidence that it was going to be sooner rather than later – Continue reading

Bluebells by the river

My Walk this Week 156 – Springtime Hill

My walk this week follows an uphill route I have climbed many times in the past but on a sunny Springtime morning felt really fresh and new. Atop the hill the view was very hazy for me and the crow below and I could see across to the far side of the valley and area of woodland that is being harvested for its conifers. My walks through those woods will never be the same again and while I knew that some day the trees would be felled, I feel very sad about it.

Crow with a view

The sunlight and life of this walk on Goppa Hill had no sadness to it and as I walked up the hollow way I was surprised to meet a goat which I thought had a somewhat “knowing” smile on its face. What it knew I cannot say but he appeared to be welcoming enough to a stranger and let me pass on by to say hello to a group of playful young cows in the field above.Continue reading

pussy willow

My Walk this Week 154 – Golden Grove, Gelli Aur

My walk this week was at Golden Grove or Gelli Aur as we call it in Wales. It was particularly enjoyable because the park has been closed for the last five years or so and it was wonderful to be able to wander round it again.

Golden Grove

Although the arboretum is only accessible if you pay, the rest of the park, even without being able to walk the circuit through the arboretum and the deer enclosure, it is still a beautiful place to visit. The cafe has opened again too and is serving some very nice home made food.Continue reading

paddling in the Tawe

My Walk this Week 153 – Tawe Riverbank

My walk this week is along the western riverbank of the Tawe. The starting point is under the bridge at Morfa where the heart of Copperopolis used to be back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

River TaweThere wouldn’t have been a concrete bridge in those days of course, but I like the patterns and colours to be seen there and I enjoyed them along the riverbank and on the water’s surface as well.Continue reading

Kenfig beach

My Walk this Week 152 – Sound of Sunny Seaside Larks

My walk this week is from the burrows and beach at Kenfig on the South Wales coast where, on a sunny Sunday, we heard the most beautiful sound of seaside larks rejoicing in the afternoon sunshine. Both they and the wonderful weather made for a very enjoyable walk through the dunes and down to the expansive beach and an ebb tide.

tree and lake

Heading first for Kenfig Pool, it seemed the water level was up from recent rain and to judge from the route we were forced to take to get to the beach, the recent storms had fulfilled their aim of dumping as much rain as possible in as short a time as possible. Continue reading

rigging and masts

My Walk this Week 151 – The Music of Storm Hannah

My walk this week was short, cold and through the remnants of Storm Hannah – it was part of a sound and weave workshop I was running over the weekend. The first stage of the workshop was to go round Swansea Marina and listen to the sounds which featured what is known as the Marina Orchestra.

dark water

The leading orchestral instruments are the masts and rigging followed by the percussion of clanks and bangs, thumps and gloops of other maritime artefacts and of course the choppy water of the marina itself.

It was wild and cold and although we found a relatively sheltered spot to listen to the “symphony”, when we ventured down to the seafront, Continue reading

My Walk this Week 150 – Weathering at the Botanic Gardens

My walk this week is at the National Botanic Garden of Wales where there was some weathering they could not control. Outside the Great Glasshouse the sun and rain, heat and cold have taken their toll on this metal plant label and the paint has cracked and peeled into a most interesting, map-like pattern.

weathered label

Inside the Great Glasshouse they can and do control the weather conditions for the different parts of the world represented there. So while there are times of year when everything in there seems so busy with growth, there are always fantastic colours, patterns and textures to enjoy whatever the time of year.Continue reading

Worthing beach

My Walk this Week 148 – Summer in Winter on the South Coast

My walk this week takes place on a Summer day in Winter on the south coast of England. It was mid-February but the temperature reached over 20 degrees celsius!

Man and dog on beach

Staying overnight on the seafront in Worthing, we awoke to a beautiful, bright day and took time for a walk along the stony beach with its ageing, bleached wood groynes. The garish colours of a multi-storey car park on the road side were followed through and improvedContinue reading