The Borage on the allotment is still in flower and still attracting bees. Usually it's done by now. I'm wondering if they might overwinter. 

 Typically Borage is grown as an annual but sometimes lasts long enough into autumn to become a coarse, bristly-looking plant with thick stems as is the case here. In which case it seems to have the stamina to become a short-lived perennial in some locales.

 Then again the allotments are something of a frost pocket. Borago officinalis is a Mediterranean species and unlikely to cope with a prolonged spell of sub-zero temperatures. Go back a few decades and it would be unusual not to have had a hard frost by now in southern England. Now it's common to have to wait till December or January.

 The Jerusalem Artichokes grew mighty tall and lush this year. Now the leaves on the stems are starting to yellow and fade. Below ground there will be hundreds and hundreds of the edible tubers. 

 More than anyone could eat without exploding! They should be eaten with care (I speak from experience). Tasty and good for the gut microbiome but potentially 'gassy'.

 Being of the Sunflower family they have bright yellow flowers. Except they rarely and barely flower in UK conditions in my experience despite growing strongly.

 There are actually two beds side by side. On the left one of the usual varieties (not sure which) reached a good ten foot/three metres tall. On the left is a "dwarf" variety which nonetheless grew to about six feet! 

 I'll grow both again next year but I have read it's a good strategy to cut the stems at about five foot high. This prevents them being wind blown and directs more energy into the growth of the tubers. Not that it seems to matter here.

 No need to waste all that good organic matter. I adopted the 'chop and drop' approach and they can mulch themselves. I cut the stems just above the ground so I can locate the clumped tubers when I come to harvest them.

 It's said that Jerusalem Artichokes are a touch sweeter after frost. in any case I'll start harvesting them soon and then for the next few months. The best way to store them is to leave them in the ground until you want to eat them. 

 A very productive crop with little input required: plant them and they grow, chop and drop, harvest, replant spare tubers in February/March. Each tuber grows a handful more. Simple, delicious!

Life is a precious flower.

 A nice combination: Sedum and Hellebore as planted by Jif at the music school. Sedums flower in autumn, great for late colour in an herbaceous border. Helleborus foetidus is generally considered to be winter flowering i.e. January onwards. As I noted recently it seems to have reset its biological clock to begin flowering from mid-October. So there is now a striking overlap between the two.

 H. foetidus is native and I had always assumed that Sedums were introduced as garden plants. In fact S. telephium aka Orpine is native. And some of the popular garden Sedums are hybrids with the Chinese/Korean species S. spectabile for example 'Autumn Joy'. Actually I'm not sure which this is, probably one of the cultivars. Since Orpine is indeed native I'm wondering why I've never seen it growing wild? 

 Cyclamen hederifolium throws out long ground hugging stems...

 

...from a mass of coils that form after the flowers on the stalks fade.

 Thereby the stretching stems move the seed capsule away from the parent plant. When the capsule ripens up to a dozen seeds are cast from it. And C. hederifolium has another trick to propagate itself round and about. The seeds have a sticky, sugary coating which attracts ants who carry them away.  

On a grey day a look back at some colourful butterflies... 

beginning with the Chalk Hill Blue 

 

Red Admiral

Comma

Peacock

Brown Argus

Adonis Blue

Painted Lady

 The trees opposite the London bound platform of Hitchin station are a useful yardstick where we're at with the seasons. I see this view regularly as I travel back and forth so note the changes from day to day and week to week.