Tag: mawddach
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 14
Our last day! Woke up early to watch the light come. In the night I’d heard rain on the roof, hammering at the covered skylight, but by the time I was sat by the window the day was dry. The world was blue black and slowly, the light trickled in, sky lightening first, then water.…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 13
Our last full day at Mawddach! We swam in the blue cold, sky rippling, water lapping, out to Jeff, the yellow buoy in the bay. The soles of my feet ached with the cold and the sky was big and, as we struck out, a heron flew overhead, close, neck stretched, circling. Later I went…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 12
Today we swam from the steps, walked down into slapping water, opaque and almost milky. Somehow the cold clutched tighter with the sudden descent, but the waves were low, and we swam out to Jeff, buoy number two. Emily had to be forsaken for the day. When we got back everything disappeared in grey. Low…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 11
Today it rained and the sky was grey and the water was grey and all of it was moving all the time, the water rippling, the air swelling, the clouds filling, the mountains dancing back and forth as the clouds fell back, pushed forward, fell back again. I swam in the morning, alone. The tide…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 10
Today my alarm went off in the middle of the night. But it wasn’t the middle of the night it was swimming time. Straight into costume and towel poncho, swim shoes on, down to the beach. It was still mostly black, the water splashed with light, the sky faintly bluer than the water. We waded…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 9
Today I woke at 5.45 because that was the time of the tide. But it was still black outside and rain was battering down. My bed was cozy and I rolled over, went back to sleep. The rest of the day it rained. The sky was thick with cloud, the mountains disappearing, shadows of grey,…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 8
This morning the world behind the window went monochrome, the clouds gathering dark in the corners then blowing to fill the sky. Cat came in from sketching and the rain started; heavy, blurring, hailstones whipping the glass. The dark clouds were gone, only grey in their place. The mountains were swallowed by mist, the estuary…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 7
We drove up the coast, first following the estuary in, on winding roads, past rows of grey slate cottages, then turning back along the opposite bank, taking the road that hugged the shore. We had spent so many hours staring across at these hills, drawing their shifting colours, noticing that they always seemed to be…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 6
We went back up the estuary, away from the sea, towards the mud flats. We saw a curlew pecking at the sand, running as if slightly off balance. We passed yesterday’s spindle bushes and sea defences and carried on, further up, looking for more. The landscape is fascinating because it is a place of such…
-
Mawddach Residency – DAY 5
We walked past our swimming bay, where the water was still low, tangled bubbles of weed in huge clumps in the mud, and take the footpath that goes up the neck of the estuary. We go through boggy land, tunnels of bracken, detouring away from deep mud through side paths in the long grass. Turning…
Bonnie Radcliffe 