I hoped to spend an hour raking leaves this morning. The fall foliage has peaked, at least at my home. Last week’s showy splendor is fallen and tattered:
I went out early, but minutes after I stepped outside, a light rain began. So I put off the leaves for another day. Raking can be brisk and enjoyable, but never in the rain. Instead I collected a few arms of firewood. I had cut an old dead apple tree two years ago. Now it’s dry enough for the stove:
The golden rod, which glowed intensely just weeks ago, has gone to seed:
But the aster still blooms. When I bought this house, five years ago, aster grew sparsely. I collected seeds and scattered them, and now it grows in many spots, richly colored purple and pink:
Aster has a sweet citrus soapy scent. I found bees clinging to flowers, completely still:
The bees had hibernated through the night. I poked them, and they drowsily resumed their labors. I cut boughs and collected them in a pitcher. They made a bright unruly bouquet, placed in the dining room:
And now, as the rain still falls and the evening starts to darken, the old apple tree burns in the wood stove:
An Armchair Academic. 
Lovely photo essay–you captured autumn as it felt at my house, too, yesterday!
Not yet peak down this way, but I hope to get out for a foliage bike ride on a rail trail soon.
Oh, those drowsy bees! 🙂 Nice job, Dave.