Blast!

This is the quarry just over the hill from my place. It’s about .5km as the crow flies, so everything really booms and reverberates on blasting days.

There was one simply enormous explosion this morning which - as always - set my nerves a-jangling. My earthquake-related PTSD (from my time in Christchurch) kicks in: I get a burst of adrenaline, my whole body tenses up, my heart races, and I’m ready to run. It’s a discombobulating feeling, but thankfully it lasts only a few seconds and I am used to it.

The extra is panned left from the main photo, showing an old quarry face which exposed the local coal seam. There was a coal mine in the village until the 1970s.