Winter Sea and Sky

The year is drawing to its close, the Winter Solstice has passed and Christmas is following fast on its heels, with all its hustle and bustle - time for a couple of peaceful images from December walks on the prom, sea and sky:

By the Sea . . .

First sunny weekend of the New Year, and we were out on the prom enjoying the sunshine and the sea.

Storm Eleanor may have moved on (leaving its debris behind it), but there were still some impressive waves to be seen at high tide on Saturday.


Here we are by the harbour, trying to capture a good wave while freezing our fingers off in the bright cold that comes with a sunny January day!




Sunday saw us walking alongside a much more civilised sea - as the sun set on the horizon . . .

Still pretty cold out mind you - at least it wasn't raining!

Seashore Sunshine

Beautiful sunny evening on the prom - what else is there to say!

Borth Rocks!

Had a walk along Borth seafront this weekend to see how the coastal defence project was working out, a few months on.

The official 'opening' was earlier this month, but work is still ongoing (even on a Sunday when these pictures were taken).

The final stages of the project include removing a causeway created to enable the building of two reefs in the bay - check out the machines in motion here.


There also still seem to be a lot of large rocks to move around - although the 'grabs' on the excavators make it look easy enough!

Loads more info on the Borth Community site if you want to track the project from the start.

De-Railed / Re-Railed

Walking the prom today and it looks like the council are finally finishing the re-railing project they started last year.






Must be said it needed doing, I'm sure some of those rails were only held together by the paint layers!




The starlings were out in force too, putting on a show over the pier - must remember to take a proper camera with me next time - the phone-cam just doesn't do it justice:

Canute Lives!

Well not exactly - but if he'd had £12.9 million to invest in coastal defences he may not have got his feet wet!  Still, it is a rather large sum of money, so we headed out for a quick look at how the coastal defence project at Borth was actually doing ....

Unfortunately we seem to have managed to miss all the dramatic scenes of 10 tonne rocks being moved around*, instead the diggers were cosied up to each other standing silent.

The beach does at least look a bit like a building site at the moment:

 - and in due course that £13 mill should deliver new rock groynes and breakwaters, an artificial multi-purpose reef (which will have the added benefit of turning Borth into a surfing destination of choice) and 'beach nourishment' (which apparently isn't as interesting as it sounds and just means they are going to add more sand and shingle!). 

Borth could well be a much more 'happening' place to be in years to come ....

* As seen below: 

© Copyright Chris Denny and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Woodland Walking

Weather stayed warm and sunny yesterday afternoon, so we made it out on another of our backyard explorations.






And I have to say that the woods above Talybont really are rather lovely - lots of meandering paths off the main track, there's a nice stream, and in due course (if we want to) we can walk on out the other side of the woods across the fields to Borth (with a bit of planning).




There are also some lovely views to be had across the valley and out to sea:

Exploring Our Own Backyard . . .

Over the last couple of day's we've been taking the opportunity to explore some of the countryside on our doorstep.  Had a lovely sunny walk out to the coast one evening . . .

. . . wandered through the woodland above Clarach - some great old trees (although Martin seemed more interested in how long this one would keep the wood burner going!).






Even Clarach Bay looked nice in the sunshine . . .

. . . and the view from Consti was pretty stunning:





Today we had a wander through one of the smaller woods we can see from the house - then round on a circular walk through some of the surrounding fields.

Got an interesting view of the Atmospheric Radar Station up the road, and encountered some rather thuggish looking boy sheep:

Beside the Seaside

It's been a quiet and rather uneventful month - not much to blog about anyway!


Took a walk down by the prom this afternoon - the waves were crashing up against the jetty . . .

and rolling onto the beach . . .

But it was the sound of the waves dragging the beach pebbles to and fro which was particularly evocative - this doesn't really do it justice, but gives you the idea!

Sea Ice

The last couple of days have been bright and cold - so cold that ice could be seen at the edges of the sea, and today the shallower bit of the harbour basin (with the tide out) was completed iced over.

It's been great weather for a walk along the prom / up Constitution Hill though - needed  to wrap up warm to start with, but by the end of the walk had thawed out* and enjoyed some fantastic views.

*Probably something to do with the 'hilly' bit!