My Walk this Week 228 – Fabric of the North Sea

Posted on 16/10/202015/10/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week looks out at the North Sea from Redcar where I was working to install to of my audio interactive tapestries as part of the Fabric of the North exhibition at Kirkleatham Hall Museum. What a hectic day it was!

The work was successful and the exhibition looks excellent. If you are able to visit you will need to book a time slot via the Kirkleatham Hall Museum website, but if you cannot get there, the exhibition will also be online on the Fabric of the North website.

Once finished at the museum we took a short trip down to Redcar seafront. If the shot above appears slightly out of focus, you can blame the strong wind which is evident in the image.

I admit to staying in the car for most of this brief visit but other local inhabitants braved the weather and walked their dogs along a stretch of the beach I remember well from so many walks taken so many years ago.

No soundscape this week I’m afraid – just a short video clip of the scene to accompany the photos below.

North Sea Redcar

North Sea wind turbines

Sea view from Redcar

steel works

sandpipers

gulls parked up

reflecting on bird life

blissfully unaware!

taking flight

abstract from the car

My Walk this Week 227 – Visual Wind and Audio Calm

Posted on 09/10/202007/10/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week contains contradictions, wind in the visual but calm in the audio. Two walks really, both from Scotland – one where photos were taken and the other where sound recordings was done.

The image above demonstrates a change in temperature while we were in Scotland, and of course that was preceded by wind. The strange rays of light sneaking through the cloud formation looks to me as though it might be an error in photo development, but this is a digital shot and anyway, I saw it with my own eyes, and it was weird. There’s nothing like nature to hold you in fascination and awe.

The effects of wind can be seen in the images below but the sound I recorded was from a cal walk along the shore, listening to the lapping of waves on the sand and amongst the rocks. So if the images leave you feeling flustered, hopefully the audio will keep you calm.

Perhaps it may be best on this occasion to look and listen separately – not something I usually prompt.

Calm Sea Soundscape

You might find using headphones worthwhile for this soundscape.

The curlew is perhaps the one natural element that is keeping its calm in the face of the wild wind and waves.

cool sky

strange light

calm curlew

curlew in flight

landscape perspective

windblown 1

windblown 2

windblown 3

waves and wind

My Walk this Week 225 – Wave Watching

Posted on 25/09/202029/09/2020 by Alastair

My Walk this Week 205 – Memories of North Wales

Posted on 01/05/202001/05/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is from the archives with memories of North Wales and a windy visit to Colwyn Bay.

Some were taking advantage of the wind in a colourful way and the sky just wanted to join in by throwing out a rainbow to accompany the wind surfing paraglider, while other like myself were getting rather more battered by it. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable walk and thrilling to be entertained by those men and their “flying machines”.

The patterns and colours of sand and wind, rust and fencing, waves and water effects in what appears to have been a changeable day are a good reminder of the experience. The soundscape also serves as an excellent transportation device to take me back there with the images – I can almost feel and smell the sea spray!

Colwyn Bay Soundscape

The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and look at the images at the same time.

Colwyn Bay and pier

Colwyn Bay Pier

Crossing to the sea

Colwyn Bay fencing

Colwyn Bay Reflections

Seaweed on fence

Fence focus 2

Colwyn Bay Crustaceans

Under the pier

sand patterns

Colwyn Bay

Paragliders

Colours in the Sky

Paragliders in the surf

Wild and Windy

Dark Sea and Weathered Fence

Running into the wind

Wind blown sand

Sand Drift

Sand Haze

Pier Structure

My Walk this Week 192 – Maritime Reflections

Posted on 31/01/202004/02/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week is from Swansea Bay and Maritime Quarter and, yet again, followed meetings, one of which was on my phone as I stood at the side of the marina and watched the still water reflecting the yacht masts and a blue sky with just one or two white clouds.

As I stood there the reflections were almost as straight as the masts themselves as the water was so still. Later on, after visiting the beach and listing to the rhythm of the waves, I returned to find the marina water rippled with activityContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 183 – Revisitation

Posted on 29/11/201925/11/2019 by Alastair

My walk this week is a revisitation to Aberavon seafront at this current time of year but from 2016 – the weather is much the same today (as I write) as it was then! But that does not make it any less interesting to me and I remember the walk well, though I admit the images and soundscape are a good memory trigger for the atmosphere.

It was a dark, wet day with a heavy sea fret coming off the bay, but it wasn’t actually raining and people were walking and running as they always are on this wonderful expansive seafront.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 147 – Back in Penzance and St Ives

Posted on 22/02/201921/02/2019 by Alastair

My walk this week is from this time 6 years ago when we visited Penzance and St Ives on the most south western corner of Britain. I was very pleased to have the excuse to visit a part of the UK I had never seen before and about which I had heard so much.

As you can see from the blue sea in the images below, we were very lucky with the weather when at St Ives, and though windier in Penzance, that made the place no less enjoyable. The only thing I regret now is that I didn’t get any sound recording done while thereContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 129 – Rhossili from the Archives

Posted on 15/10/201809/10/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week shows images from my archive and a walk along Rhossili Down at the end of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.

For all the changes in environmental circumstances from day to day or even hour to hour, these photos from 2014 cannot show any potential differences in the underlying structure and general appearance of the place. The pace of change on a geological time scale is not the same as our lives and although it is true that we sometimes see rocks fall from a cliff or even cliffs collapse as a result of erosion from the sea, the overall changes can be almost imperceptible.Continue reading→

Tag Archives: Waves