I was finally forced out to buy groceries yet again today. Seems like I’m *always* heading out the door to buy groceries. I don’t understand how that works, since there are only two of us living in this house and we don’t consume vast amounts of food, but we more often than not seem to be out of a variety of key products. I try to convince myself that as long as we have coffee, toilet paper and dog and cat food we can get by, but this generally doesn’t go over too well, although the dogs and cats seem to feel it’s perfectly OK.

I have switched venues in the past year to shopping at our local Co-op grocery store. The Co-operative farmer’s movement is something whose history I don’t know as well as I should, being a Saskatchewan resident lo these many years, but it evolved out of the need for rural people (in the earlier part of the last century, that was the bulk of the population) to work together in a co-operative fashion in order to survive. The heritage of those early days of group economic activity lives on in Co-op grocery stores, gas stations, and a number of other thriving commercial enterprises.

When my kids were little, I shopped at the nearest Co-op grocery store regularly. Then at one point there was a rather protracted labour strike and I stopped going, more out of fear of confrontation than from any high moral stance, and I got out of the habit of turning east at the critical intersection, and didn’t go to the Co-op for about two decades.

I am not a happy shopper for any products other than art/camera supplies and at tack stores, and finally the stress and irritation engendered by the other grocery chains in the area drove me back to the Co-op. I was pleasantly surprised by the relative calm of this store, the adequate but manageable size, and the exceptional quality of all food categories on offer, especially the produce. The other customers seemed a lot more civilized, as well. The local big box low-cost option next door to “my” Co-op seems more like roller derby with grocery carts than anything else, and I can’t say this is a sport I ever wanted to indulge in.

The only complaint I have about the Co-op, in fact, was brought home to me today when I had to endure the sound effects yet again. As you are poking through the broccolli and feeling the avocados, minding your own business and in your own little bubble, it’s a bit of a shock when suddenly a loud and startling cackling of disturbed chickens breaks out overhead, followed by the plaintive lowing of cattle. This is repeated at odd and unpredictable intervals until you have fled to the relative safety of the area east of the freezers. Interestingly, that’s the direction you have to go to buy the actual meat products of those poor creatures you had to listen to over in produce. I guess they figure that listening to the last words of various chickens and cows might have an effect on sales in the meat department. As it turns out, I *don’t* buy any meat products at the Co-op, mostly because I feel badly about eating other sentient beings. I still do it, in moderation, but I only buy from people whose farms I have been to and who I know give their animals a good quality of life before they meet their inevitable end. It seems like the least a person can do, plus you have the satisfaction of knowing where your food money is ending up, and of getting a premium quality product at the same time.

When I hear the chicken audio loop at the Co-op, I often think about the many chicken photos I have taken over the years. I have a great fondness for chicken shots, although finding visually interesting chickens living a natural lifestyle can sometimes be a challenge. Most of the chickens I’ve had access to have been located on horse farms that I have gone to for horse photo shoots. After I’ve done all the shots of the high-end Warmbloods or whatever the particular establishment boasts in the way of horses, I’ll usually ask if it’s OK if I go in with the chickens to get some photos. Luckily my clients tend to be fairly accepting of my sometimes inexplicable (to them) enthusiasms. One of my “regular” flocks has now gone to the great coop in the sky, not to be replaced, but I was lucky to find a new, numerous and varied flock including Bantam chickens, ducks, and geese, at one of my recent horse photo locations. I look forward to revisiting them in the future and adding to my ongoing collection.

The first photo today is a fairly old one–from my film camera days. It’s a shot I’ve always really liked, and was just a lucky grab shot one day when I was at the zoo with my grandson a number of years ago. They have a small flock of roosters and chickens that wander around at large on the grounds, along with an excessive number of peacocks. This rooster had gone up into the evergreen tree for a bit of a sit, and the sun was streaming in on him. In this version I have scanned the original print and played a bit in Photoshop for a painterly effect.

The second shot is one I call “Sunday Walk”. This was the flock I used to photograph fairly regularly that is no longer with us. They were mostly “little red hens” with a few splashy roosters. I’m clueless as to chicken breeds, so although I believe the hens were Rhode Island reds, I certainly wouldn’t argue if someone told me otherwise.

©Copyright 2008 by Judy Wood. See original post here.