Cycles and circles

I lost a hen last week, and this morning found Barbara (as in Barbara, Margo and Tom) dead in her house. Both  deaths were from old age, nothing more, as is the nature of things, literally. It's always sad when it happens, but they both had good lives here; the Black Rock was about 4, and Barbara was the grand old age of 6 - good for a wee bantam, and she was the hen who hatched the inimitable Dude, who's real mother I still have. That leaves me with 7 hens today, as William Barnes the cockerel recently left us as well. I now have Dot, Pansy, Dude, and the 4 Eliz/sabeths.
Tonight however, I am off over the border into deepest Someemrset tow pick up two hens form a friend of my two who is no longer able to keep them, so that will be replacements for the recent two hens. I will wait and see about the cockerel, one will come along when the time is right, but William is missed here for his arrogant strutting and excellent hen management skills lol

The lovely pic above is from:
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_feb2008/CircleOfLife.htm