RAVENSBOURNE FERTILISER WORKS ON OTAGO HARBOUR.

A beautiful day encouraged me to take Odd for a walk this morning (we both needed one...). Walking along the path I took lots of photos of the scenery until I came across a hot water outlet from the Ravensbourne Fertiliser works that drains into the harbour. There's lots of steam and it looks... wrong. The water is clean, way cleaner than the sea, but it looks... suspicious. Ive never liked the factory, I think it should be somewhere else, somewhere not adjacent to a beautiful harbour, somewhere not on my way home, its just... ugly.

Today though I thought about it a little more, a fertiliser works, it makes things that makes things grow. It might be cause for a debate but, really, I suppose that's a good thing.

I do have an actual cause to dislike the factory. I was walking past it once at about 3 am and a steam release valve suddenly... released steam. A lot of steam! A sudden piercing noise. fog everywhere and a fear that it heralded an explosion. I just about filled my pants! I was grateful no-one was around to see me jump out of my skin and rapidly retreat to a safe distance! I didn't like being scared by the factory.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and it brought to mind his thoughts about technology, ignorance and fear.

I realised, that's me. So... I tried to find some sympathy for the machine, some beauty in the hardware. And as soon as I tried... it was there.