Black Swan

Black Swan on the Otakaro

 Black Swan

Today's blog starts with another older photo - taken from the bank of the Avon River (Otakaro), outside our home.  A crisp morning fog heralds the arrival of a majestic black swan.

We spent nearly 10 years living beside the river (in 2 different abodes).  There is a peace and beauty to be had watching the water flowing past. The sounds of the local wildlife were just wonderful.  There was always somone going past, enjoying a stroll (with children or their dog ~ or both!), having a run, out on a cycling adventure or power walking.  The blend of bi-peds and quadrupeds made for interesting viewing and never a dull momnent. 

Our time there came to a rather abrupt end after the series of devasting earthquakes that rocked Otautahi.  The land was too serverly damaged to be rebuilt upon and our wee river community was forced to split and neighbours went their separate ways.  We have stayed in touch with most of our neighbours - when you experience a natural disaster together like we did, you are no longer neighbours - you become very good, close friends. This photo captures some of the peace and serenity that we enjoyed on the riverside. Sadly, the quakes caused significant damage along this stretch. The black swans still swim here but at the moment it doesn't quite have the same sense of serene peace that we all loved.

Black Swan and cygnet

New Zealand Black swans (Cygnus Atratus) are probably Australian immigrants like almost all creatures in New Zealand. There was a native population in Aotearoa New Zealand prior to the arrival of the Maori peoples but they were hunted to extinction by the time the first European people started arriving.
 Fresh stocks of Black Swans were later reintroduced as a game bird and there is good reason to believe that other swans have arrived in Aotearoa by flying here directly.





On a completely different tangent we watched the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games which was a great treat. Due to the time difference we in Aotearoa had to get up early on Saturday morning to catch the opening on Friday evening London time. Witchy is a big sports fan and hopes to watch as much of the games as she can. I, on the other hand, am not really interested in sports and find myself a little bemused that so many folk get so much from it.

I can easily see the joy of watching sport without needing to actually exercise much more than the remote control finger - but for me the entire focus on 'winning/losing' thing seems a little pointless. Of course sports is big on points - if the guys in the blue shirts get more points than the other guys in the red shirts they are deemed to 'won' and the others lost. Along with this comes the inference that the team with the highest number of points is somehow 'better' than the other team and that's the bit I really don't understand.

Winners and losers are opposite ends of the same stick - a winner or loser is only called so when compared with the other competitor at the time of that particular match. Whatever the scores may be they are a function of the dynamics of the interaction and the comparison between the two! Your team cannot win unless mine loses and vice versa.

For me the relative scores of a sports match and who wins or loses is far less interesting than watching the displays of individual excellence and physical and mental prowess exhibited by the competitors. So often a 'losing' team (in the sense of acquiring fewer points or goals) actually puts up a better game than the 'winners'.

Ultimately there is a huge selection of variables including quantum indeterminacy which really really determine the outcome of any sporting event so, for me anyway, the pleasure of watching sport comes from the sheer aesthetics of watching superbly trained people performing at their best.

In the sports that I watch every entrant is a winner unless they deliberately under perform - which in itself must still be a type of performance!

Dawn Anchorage

Today's 3d image is a recent one, part of a series of renderings based loosely on actual photographs.

Till next time.....

Wzrd