Rowntree Park, York

My Walk this Week 128 – Rowntree Park Soundscape

The soundscape for my walk this week in Rowntree Park in York, is formed by buggies and bicycles, footsteps and wheelchairs, skateboards and birds, children and adults – all enjoying the mid afternoon sunshine and warmth.

tall grasses

The sound file below describes and refers to the images in this and the two previous posts for this walk but does not say anything about the strange object amongst the trees that I noticed in the shadows from a distance. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I reached its other side – I assume it refers to an aspect of York’s history but as there was no information on it I cannot say for sure.

I did not explore the whole park on my walk but enjoyed every minute of it from the pergola to the ponds, the gates to the grasses, and all the activities of calm relaxation surrounding me. I like the gates to the park’s southern entrance, and their shadows, but have only just realised how closely they match the pattern of growth in my photo of tall grasses below!

Rowntree Park Soundscape

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weeping willows

My Walk this Week 128 – Rowntree Ramble

My walk this week is a gentle ramble round Rowntree park in York but it is written with tears in my eyes. I took the walk on a recent visit to my parents who since then have both died, with my mother going through what she thought of as a transformation just one week after my father. They were both ill and each going peacefully in their sleep was a blessing, but that makes me no less sad for their passing away.

Pergola promenade

This walk shows my first visit inside Rowntree Park – I have visited York often enough but until this occasion I have only been able to look into the park from the outside because my previous opportunities all coincided with the River Ouse being in flood. Continue reading

York University

My Walk this Week 125 – Colour in Construction

I was looking for woodland on my walk this week – and I found it, to a degree, behind the colour in construction of the Science and Technology Block of York University.

York University

It was open woodland straggling along the back of the university which I picked up again on my return across open fields. The colours used in the modern buildings reflected those of older walls surrounding the adjacent York House BIRT facility. I enjoyed the colour in both as well as the textures and patterns in the old, and the cleanliness and hard edges of the new.Continue reading

hidden concrete

My Walk this Week 125 – Concrete and Trees

Looking for urban woodland on my walk this week, perhaps inevitably, I found concrete and trees. While trying to keep to the narrow wooded area behind York University, I intentionally crossed a road via an underpass in order to find the castle-like structure I had spotted on Googlemaps.

light and shade

Similar in design to Clifford’s Tower in the centre of York, the structure was much larger than that, and made of concrete. From the ground it was well camouflaged by the foliage patterns of light and shade cast by tall trees and the sun on the imposing walls and rusty windows.

It wasn’t a brutalist modern day castle, butContinue reading

red berries

My Walk this Week 125 – Berried in York Woodland

Returning to my weekly theme of walks, I have recently been in search of woodland inYork. While the city is full of beautiful, mature trees, there is a lack of woodland – something that I am used to having where I live. I know it is a city and I shouldn’t expect to find woodland in its centre, but even around its outskirts the land is flat and farmed.

black berries

Following a footpath through a strip of land behind the university I first found seed heads left over from the Summer and then the berries and fruit of Autumn. Huge conkers on horse chestnut trees, black and red berries poisonous to humans, rose hips and brambles – they were all abundant and added to the colour around me.Continue reading

Scarborough Express

The Scarborough Express Steam Train

While walking around York railway station on my walk this week I saw an increasing number of photographers hanging around – then, to my surprise, the Scarborough Express steam train arrived – which explained everything.

York Station

I had been focusing on some of the architectural details and perspectives of the station, enjoying the rib cage of arches andContinue reading