My Walk this Week 248 – End of the Day

Posted on 12/03/202110/03/2021 by Alastair

My walk this week was a much needed one towards the end of the day – a day on which I had spent all my time on the computer.

It is the sounds enjoyed on this walk that are most important to me but the images and video give a visual context to it as well.

The robin and the blackbird seem to be having a conversation – and the sheep have something to say too.

Birds and Sheep

The walk took me up a familiar footpath where I noticed things I hadn’t really paid attention to previously – such as the arboreal elbow of a tree or the integration of another tree and old build wall. Perhaps I should describe this as a take over of man-made by natural.

And from my elevation with views I descended a steep track to the valley floor and the river I have so often featured here.

Click the play button for the sound file and then the first image to view the images in sequence.

Landscape, river and route

My Walk this Week 239 – Happy New Year

Posted on 01/01/202129/12/2020 by Alastair

Happy New Year to all my StillWalks® followers and visitors. My walk this week is a hopeful one that takes you out of the woods and into the open.

The sound track for this short video was not going to be as it is. When recording the short clip in the woods at Llyn Llech Owain a helicopter flew overhead (as you can hear) – this prompted me to record a separate sound clip after it had passed.

However, it occurred to me that the helicopter might be considered symbolic of the past year in that it was likely to be an emergency flight taking someone to hospital. I doubt very much that we are out of the woods yet with the coronavirus. Even with the vaccine it will take time to immunise the population and we need to keep our fingers crossed that the vaccine will do the trick.

So out of the woods and into the open . . . Llyn Llech Owain is a local country park on one of those currently rare bright cold days, we and other families carefully kept socially distanced as we enjoyed the sounds of the geese on the lake, the peace of no traffic in the background, and the moon rising as the sun set (at the end of the video in the top left corner).

My Walk this Week 235 – Forest and Woods

Posted on 04/12/202003/12/2020 by Alastair

My walk this week looks at the loss of a small forest and the enjoyment of local woods. To be fair the conifer forest that is now gone was originally planted with the intention of harvesting the lumber and the area is being replanted with native deciduous trees. All the same, the change was and still is a bit of a shock to the senses.

The day was still and quiet but as always there was the background sound of traffic. However, as I was not listening to the traffic but instead enjoying the stillness and the birds, I decided to filter out that more urban ambience from the video above.

The intimacy of the Autumn – Winter woodland with its wet leaves and moss plus the curious observers of my audio visual activities is something I have missed recently as the last time I was here was back in August.

My Walk this Week 178 – Scottish Woodland

Posted on 25/10/201905/11/2019 by Alastair

My walk this week is another from Scotland where I took a stroll through woodland on the edge of Gatehouse of Fleet. Starting from the banks of the river Fleet, I enjoyed the familiar footpath as I twisted and turned in a loop, looking at my surroundings with a strong green cast to the light.

It is a peaceful part of the country and while there is an inevitable background of man-made sound, the ambience of the forest was more noticeable with its birds and flowing water, a gentle breeze in the trees and just the occasional sound of other people in the area.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week 175 – Forest Changes

Posted on 04/10/201903/10/2019 by Alastair

Hello everyone, I’m back from my break and while I will be posting about some walks taken while away, my walk this week is one of those I have taken since returning and illustrates some of the changes to my nearest forest.

I have already posted about the timber felling in this woodland and I went there in trepidation of what I would find. In the first six shots below you can see what, previously, you could not! The landscape, beautiful as it is, would have been seen from this position through a thick latticework of branches. The blue sky would have been a fine mosaic seen through the canopy and theContinue reading→

My Walk this Week 153 – Tawe Riverbank

Posted on 05/04/201904/04/2019 by Alastair

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.

There 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→

My Walk this Week 133 – Autumn Woodland

Posted on 16/11/201810/11/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is through a section of the forest in Penllergaer Valley Woods near Swansea in South Wales. I was keen to find a moment in our currently wet weather to see the colours that I know exist here at this time of year. Being a valley means you get to see the and hear the woodland from different vantage points with overviews of the slopes of yellowing trees as well as the closer details around the footpaths.

The soundscape is different in the depths of the valley to that on its upper edges – this is partly because, down below, you are sheltered from the background sound of traffic on the motorway. But the sound of birds is still masked somewhat by the waterfall at this time of year when it is raging and thundering down from the lake.

I hope that you will click the play button below and listen to the soundscape while viewing the images in sequence – perhaps the sound will help to bring the images to life and bring you closer to my own experience of the walk.

Autumn Woodland Soundscape

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Dry Weather – Overgrowth and Undergrowth

Posted on 27/06/201815/06/2018 by Alastair

In the park woodland the undergrowth is seeing an overgrowth and we have had so much unusually good weather lately that the water level in the park pond has dropped dramatically – the bullrushes are going well but the mud is being exposed.

Where once there were bluebells, now there is a rapidly thickening jungle of bracken. Above, in the oak trees a son thrush sings and it’s little one (?) down on the ground looks slightly bewilderedContinue reading→

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