Garden photos from 1st November and new hens

When we arrived home after our trip to England, I was shocked to see that nearly all the leaves from my colourful shrubs and trees had dropped in just one week! Now it was very windy at times in England and leaves were dropping like crazy, but I'm not aware of it having been particularly windy here (I looked at the weather forecast for home several times). So when I discovered a number of photos on my camera that I'd taken just before leaving I was rather pleased!

Two different Smokebushes looking spectacular.

Looking towards the veg patch.

Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'
with a few leaves left.

Lime tree on the right and ornamental cherries by the pond.

The same trees' leaves closer up.

The pond level is down about 3.5 feet.

The ducks keeping their distance.

There were still a few butterflies about when the sun came out.
Comma (Polygonia c-album).

Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album).

Amazingly this is completely new growth on a Hollyhock
which is still flowering now, and a Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)
which I hadn't noticed at the time.

Borage self seeded and running riot all over the garden!

Whilst the trees are looking very different now, the flowers still look exactly the same and it always seems strange to see some already completely bare trees along with lots of brightly coloured flowers when we have mild autumns. I have loads of yellow and orange calendula and nasturtiums, pink and white cosmos, blue borage, mauve verbena bonariensis and bluey-mauve phacelia which is just starting to flower again from yet another wave of self seeded plants. It's mostly annuals that are still flowering and they will be hit by frost which is coming with colder weather this weekend. It'll make the enormous clear up of the veg patch easier as that's going to take some work with all that has self seeded in there - but it's been pretty and I've enjoyed this impromptu display of colour which has lasted at least six months and which has very much looked after itself. And given that there'll be snowdrops flowering in January or early February, having only a brief period without flowers helps to make winter seem much shorter!

Now for those new hen photos. The reason I bought more hens is because one of the only two girls still laying died some time back, so off we set for Dol market one Saturday morning for more. As the remaining layer (now called Gaby-Carly as I couldn't tell the difference between the two so didn't know which one had died), was getting to the end of her laying days, I thought I'd get three hens this time, as my neighbour usually buys a dozen a week so three laying should be about right. I had wanted another Light Sussex like Snowy, but the last two times I've been to the market, they didn't have any. So I chose three of varying colours so I could tell the difference between them! There's still a predominance of orange though. This time regarding naming them I only named one after a Facebook friend (my friend Dave) so went back to my old method of naming them according to their colours - not very imaginative but about the best my brain can manage these days!

Blondie, very young with hardly any comb developed yet.

Blondie again - I've never seen a hen this colour before.

Bottoms up.

The three newbies on the right - furthest is Blondie,
middle is Davey and closest is Goldie.

Poor Andrea the oldest hen looking awful during a full moult!
I'm glad to say she looks a lot better now.

Randy with the two oldies.

Randy with the three newbies.

The magnificent beast.

Blondie again trying to escape! Her comb is growing fast
and she is laying baby eggs now.

P.S. There are some odd things happening with the html which I can't amend as they keep coming back; also the white boxes around the photos aren't as they should be.....