Joe's chooks

I went on a round trip early this morning to help out some friends whose daughter was having an operation in Gloucester hospital today. I had to leave home quite early to ensure I arrived on the far side of Cirencester by 9am to pick up E. and I was pleasantly surprised that there was bright sunshine to accompany my cross country jaunt through the farmland on the Cotswold plateau.

After dropping E. off I did a bit of shopping in Gloucester, but as the sunshine had disappeared behind scudding clouds, I decided to head back home, but going via the farm shop in Bisley, where I stupidly left my fresh eggs after buying them last Friday. It was classic drive cutting up and down over hills and vales on single track roads through holloways, old disused woodlands, Painswick village and small remote hamlets perched in little combes above the valley bottoms.

I saw a few walkers and one cyclist reduced to walking up hills, but didn't see any scenes worth recording in the dull light. So when I reached the farm shop, before going in, I parked near to Joe's chicken runs for his select breeds of chickens which he has been breeding for a few years. Joe is the teenage son of one of the extended family which runs the farm and its shop, selling their own and other local produce.

I poked my lens through the very high chain link fencing around the huts and their runs. After photographing a few hens who were scuttling about in the dirt, this rather elegant cock wandered out to see what all the fuss was about. He just stood there quite unperturbed by me and my camera, as if volunteering for his portrait to be blipped today.