Please click on this panoramic shot of Carmarthenshire to view it on a larger scale as it should be. It wasn’t a day of beautiful sunshine but you still get to see the patchwork of files that makes up so much of the Welsh landscape if you are not in the mountains.
Sitting by the side of the steep, slippery, wet footpath down which I walked through this mossy Carmarthenshire woodland, I found this brick built well (I assume that is what it is – the water was beautifully clear inside it). There are plenty of woodlands like this in Wales that are full of moss, but I particularly liked the fringe, sideburns and decorative foliage adorning this wayside feature.
Complementary images to my walks this week can be found directly on Instagram or via the sidebar images on the StillWalks blog. Images displayed here and on Instagram are a mixture of iPhone and Canon DSLR photography.
I have had a couple of walks in Carmarthenshire recently in spite of wet weather. During these excursions I found this dinosaur-like mossy monster. I don’t know if this woodland should be described as ancient, but it certainly seemed like it to me, and with this “creature” lurking there it seemed even more as though I had gone back in time.
Complementary images to my walks this week can be found directly on Instagram or via the sidebar images on the StillWalks blog. Images displayed here and on Instagram are a mixture of iPhone and Canon DSLR photography.
The water in this old dew pond in the woods is beautifully clear but it is most likely filled with rain water rather than dew. Check out more about dew ponds here.
Looking deep into the damp woods of a welsh valley reveals quite a tangle of mossy branches. When walking through woodland I often get the urge to delve deeply into their interior, no matter how dense that may be. I wonder if the woods would feel this was an invasion or a connection?
Exploration like this is not such a great risk in Britain as it would be in other larger countries. However, that does not mean that the risk is not there, so don’t wander too far from the path folks!
Even on a bright day, the woods can be incredibly dark! The trees in the first image show darker than they were in reality but I wanted to keep the contrast between them and the colour of the sunlit landscape behind.
The second image has been lightened! The original photo was dark but only because it reflected how dark the interior of the dense undergrowth really was.
The ruined stone wall hidden in amongst the trees of Cwm Nash Woods was a surprise find – for me at least. The wall belongs to an old mill beside the Ffynnon Marl river. The StillWalks production walk I did with Dr Cathy Treadaway as part of the “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing” research project, was done without a recce walk beforehand.
I had been asked to go along with a completely fresh eye (and ear). I don’t normally do this because there are distinct production advantages to checking out the lie of the land beforehand. However, whether the walk is done as a recce or as a production, new surroundings are always exciting to explore and Cwm Nash absolutely “came up to the mark” for me as a new discovery.
. . . you’ll find some strange wooden serpents slithering through the undergrowth. This Loch Ness monster like fallen branch is classic shape from the crooked oak trees of the woods in Coedbach Park.
It is not the first time I have photographed this particular piece of wood, but it is in a different position in the woods now, so it is obviously on the move!
