Good evening @erh.germany - I'll be honest and say I struggled with conceptualising this piece, and started many times overs - and this was probably the longest I'd spent on a piece, but, I couldn't get it to a place where I was really happy. That cow section was re-worked so many times, and every single time, it lost some magic - at one point he (she) was wearing a crown!

I had initially thought of having six very surreal images - and had really wanted to push the boundaries. I had at one point wanted a young couple under a blossom tree to imagine futures in the blossom's fall.

There's a novel in Australia, 'Boy Swallows Universe' - Netflix is going to turn it into a series - but it has been on every bestseller list for years. One of the central motifs in that text is the wren, 'Your end is a dead blue wren'. A portent of doom from the first page. The novel has a number of magic realism elements in it - and, in thinking surrealism, I was very much happy to take that blue wren and let him help my piece.

Ah, the bloody cow - didn't even cross my mind to think of how I was gendering him/her. Will call that a very fair point you make. The flies and the skies were my favourite part of this piece! I'm glad you found the piece's rhythm, in places it flowed beautifully, and in others, I felt it just came crashing to a halt.

Either way, I do love the Ink Well challenge each week, it certainly asks for creativity and I'm always glad to exchange a word with you.

Which bird did you have in mind? I was going delicate and beautiful to balance the blossom, but your question has me thinking large water birds!