Firstly, an apology, since today’s post was meant to be another instalment (#9 in fact!) of the Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes series (the link is to the most recent instalment, which in its turn links back to all the previous posts.)

However, as those who have read my 1 August post on the Supernatural Underground may be aware, I have recently sustained an eye injury, one that means I have to limit my screen time until it’s 100% again. So since the “Having Fun” posts tend to be large and require more screen time, it will be delayed until that happy day — which I am really hoping will not be further away than next Monday!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few more pics from “Inside Middle Earth”. 😉 These particular ones are from Christchurch’s post-earthquake, Residential Red Zone (and here’s a little more explanation from Wikipedia in relation to the Central City Red Zone), which is close to where I live.

The area alongside the Avon river, as featured in the photo below, was once all houses and gardens in the Christchruch suburbs of Avonside, Dallington, and Richmond, all of which were cleared as a result of the 2010-2011 earthquakes:

Avonside area, Christchurch Residential Red Zone

Spot the ducklings by the way! (This photo was taken last spring.)

“As I went out walking” (to quote the U2 song) a few months back I spotted welcome swallows, around 10 or 12 of them, darting and diving exuberantly to and fro across the river. Naturally, I tried to catch this on film, but largely without success: they were just too fast for me and my fairly basic camera. However, I did manage to get this:

Welcome swallow & silhouette

The flash of one welcome swallow at bottom right — and its far clearer and magnified silhouette. 🙂

I also managed to catch another two as silhouettes only, but they are not as clear: look to the top left this time.

So there you are, a little riverside magic — and if light and shadow is something of a theme, under the circumstances that’s probably appropriate, too. 😀