Rainy Day Notes.

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:

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