Pumpkin, Tomatoes, Onion and Eggs

After Juan Sánchez Cotán.

Well, I won't be getting many more eggs for a while. Only two hens left after the fox attack and the fright will stop them laying for a while. Shame. It only takes a few minutes for the fox to strike. I don't blame the hungry animal but it's understandable why they are so maligned. Unfortunately they don't just take one bird and go. Frenzied, they slaughter as many as they can get their teeth in to, leaving a bloodbath and only taking one or two away. I must have interrupted it's attack as not one bird was taken away but the official count is five dead and two who may not survive.

Five poor souls are now in a secured shed in the yard. I had to clean and disinfest it this morning, then I set about building them perches and installed a heat lamp in the hope the warmth will nurse them back to health. It was one of the farmers hen houses and the itching after I put them away last night told me that his birds had had unwanted guests. It's one of the inevitable things that come with poultry but easily sorted.

As I'm unlikely to see a home laid egg for a while I decided to blip my girls last offerings, white from the Volkwerks, brown from the ISAs and my Araucana's one and only blue egg. I remembered Juan Sánchez Cotán's 17th century bodegón works. Bodegón were Spanish still life paintings of pantry items, normally depicted on a simple marble slab or on a wooden board. My work will never compete but it actually turned out not to badly! :)