woods + waterfalls 2

Walk Two (part 1):  March 12th 2013

blue
ice

A week later and the weather has changed. Spring has been put on hold and winter’s icy breath is palpable, painting the world white, freezing fast running water into static icicles and chilling the warming sap of new growth.

ice
flows

The skies are still blue, but a colder, icier shade of powder blue and the sun’s warmth barely registers. Still the magic remains… fringes of icicles decorate black river rocks and the moss remains a vivid sap green, cloaking trees and rocks alike.

Falling

Moss
closer

Moss
rushing water

Gentle water
moss

Further up river I get more adventurous jumping from bank to bank, scrambling down bracken clad gullies to get to the larger waterfalls and clambering across dry stone walls so I can follow the river upstream. It is bitterly cold and this week I don’t linger to contemplate the sounds and sights of the river’s journey.

Waterfall
blues

Ice form water

Ice form

ice
fringe

river
wider

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Yule…the tree

stars

The tree has been bought and moved into it’s place in the house. We spent hours decorating it, unwrapping precious, memory evoking decorations from the numerous boxes and tins. Carefully hanging them on the fresh green, needle clad branches allowing space for the Christmas peacock. the ballerina and the new knitted cat. Multi coloured lights reflect, sparkle and highlight. Bring light to the darkness.

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:: Mountain Moods ::

I live in the valley just below Cnicht one of the Moelwynion mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. It has a very distinctive profile when viewed from the west and as a result it is commonly known as the Matterhorn of Wales. I love Cnicht. I watch it’s moods change with the day..black and foreboding in the morning to often bathing in soft sunset glows by the evening. Even though it is not has high as many of it’s bigger, more imposing cousins in Snowdonia, it still feels like being on top of the world  when you reach the summit, with views stretching from the Carneddau and Snowdon in the north to Cardigan Bay and the Llyn Peninsula to the west. Today I have been out taking photographs of Cnicht. It is very cold here, but the sun has been playing hide and seek behind black skitting clouds and shards of hail pierce the skies. As I write this now the sky is a pinky grey and Cnicht, a diaphanous shroud cloaked in mist.

Deep and Long Shadows
Cnicht

Golden
Summit shadow
Cnicht

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