Landscape

Escape to Snowdonia

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It’s been a while since we were allowed to leave the county so it was not only enjoyable but quite a relief to get up to Snowdonia and play in the hills for a few days. We had perfect weather so enjoyed a few good days out on the bikes and also explored some familiar and some new parts of the area. Despite the great weather it was fairly quiet due to the fact that visitors from England are not currently allowed across the border. Up on top of the Glyders, after a scramble up Tryfan, we were treated to amazing views as the clouds parted and we were able to see them swirling and spilling around the peaks and cols.

Preseli sunset

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It was nice to head out of the county the other day to take some property pictures for clients in Newport and Llandysul. On the way back I struck gold as I found myself on top of the Preseli Hills as a great sunset was developing. It was a lot colder than it looked from inside the car with a Northerly wind whipping over the tops of the hills but it was a fine sunset to enjoy before my fingers became too cold to feel.

There's the remains of an ancient settlement up here so I guess there's a long tradition of watching the sunset from this vantage point. The view would have been very different when the settlement was occupied. Most of the hills and valleys would have been thickly forested but the land has long been shorn of its trees and is now primarily used as grazing for sheep and cows. There's an element of the concept of shifting baselines at play when enjoying this view. Daniel Pauly developed this concept in reference to fisheries where scientists would set a baseline for the expected prevalence of a species based on numbers encountered at the start of their careers rather than before human intervention. This explains why we readily accept the decline in species because we are usually only comparing what we see to what we have seen in our living memory. Early records show that mariners would be able to scoop fish from the sea with a saucepan as populations were so healthy yet over the generations the baseline has shifted and now we accept that the oceans are far less populated. Looking over this view we accept that the nearest group of trees is in the far distance yet if I was 1000 years old I'd have been shocked at the loss of trees and wildlife. Wouldn't it be something to see trees return to this view and get the chance to ride a wolf into battle against a massive bear thats trying to eat all the chanterelle mushrooms growing in the woods!?

Dicing with a dousing at Caerfai

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A grey evening at Caerfai Bay. We’ve had a lot of big waves hitting the coast recently but I’ve not managed to go get any pics as yet. I popped down there this afternoon, just for a walk really but thought I’d take the tripod down just for daily practice. Below are the results. Now my lens makes a grindy sandy sound thanks to a big one that came through. I felt that I could have made it onto Kookslams if anyone had been watching.

A day out in the Preseli Hills

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The Preseli Hills under blue skies and with a thin coat of snow. We meandered Eastwards between the crags and outcrops that are scattered along the ridge and finished up at Foel Drygarn; an ancient hillfort and the largest in Pembrokeshire, before turning back for home. Carn Goedog was at one point thought to be the most likely source for the Bluestones that were used in the construction of Stonehenge but reading around online it seems that there is still plenty of doubt and opposing opinion on the subject. I expect it’s a debate that will continue for some time. Whatever the truth, the stones have a sculptural quality to them that was no doubt as appealing to ancient civilizations as they are to the wandering photographer in 2021. It seems there isn’t much evidence of any quarrying works which suggests that glacial forces are the most likely explanation for their appearance on the Salisbury Plain. The hills would once have been forested but have been used by humans for millenia and along with the signs of settlement, there are also the lines of ancient drovers routes that can still be seen crossing the terrain. Livestock would have been moved from Pembrokeshire farms to markets further East and many hooves have left scars on the landscape that are still visible now.

The Preseli Hills feel like a miniature version of the larger landscapes of the Brecon Beacons or the Moors of South West England. It’s possible to stroll around the hills in a day and see most of what they have to offer but, like the Cleddau Estuary I wrote about in my last post, the hills are a less explored gem of Pembrokeshire.

I processed these to give a slightly otherworldly feeling as that seemed to suit the collection. Let me know if you think it works/doesn’t work.

Along the river Cleddau

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The Cleddau estuary is such a hidden gem of Pembrokeshire. I imagine most tourists may visit for years before they even think about going to take a walk anywhere near the river. With such an impressive coastline to explore there’s no room in the schedule for looking elsewhere. Which is all fine by me. It’s always nice and quiet on the river and it feels like a different world. I wrote a few weeks back about the history of the ferries and industry on the river. Here, near Hook, coal mines were dotted along the banks and much was transported by water to market further afield. The remains of small jetties can still be seen here and there in the form of ancient timbers sticking out of the water.

Edit: The name on the wrecked boat has made me chuckle since I googled it. Llamedos. Terry Pratchett used the name in his Discworld novels for a land ruled by druids with rain as its major export. The name is a play on Dylan Thomas’ fictional town of Llareggub; ‘Bugger All’ spelt backwards.

Porthclais

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Some drone shots from Porthclais. Unusually for early January in Pembrokeshire it was calm and still with barely any swell. A true winter colour palette with empty fields and beaten down bracken.