Scenes from an Autumn Afternoon

 The weather was so beautiful last Friday afternoon, I managed to coax my husband to walk around Moreau Lake with me.  Usually, he won't come out with me, because of my habit of stopping every few yards to photograph something that's caught my eye, but this day I promised I'd keep up with him as he strode along on the wide sandy beach.  And I almost DID keep that promise.

Who could blame me, though, for wanting to document this Daisy Fleabane exploding into bloom as if it were spring?  I had seen a few straggling blooms on other, mostly withering plants,  but this was a vigorous plant freshly abloom, with even more buds to come.

I also drew to a halt when this splendid dragonfly landed before me on a sprig of Pitch Pine, and wonder of wonders, stayed put!  I was even able to creep in close for the shot, and the pretty creature never budged.  I believe this is one of the Darners, a group of dragonflies even the experts have difficulty identifying.

Again, I just had to stop to take in the brilliance of a whole shore of Black Huckleberry bushes, their scarlet leaves set ablaze by a lowering sun.

That low sun was also working miracles on the Lespedezas, transforming the dull, weedy-brown Round-headed Bushclovers into flaming torches, exploding with light.

An oh, just look at the jewels that were strewn at our feet when we passed beneath a Big-toothed Aspen tree!

As the sun sank lower and lower, shadows crept over the mountains and darkened the shore of the lake, while the reflected sky and the forested mountainsides still glowed with a brilliant light.  Just one last photo, Dear, I promise, OK?  Sure, OK, he said, and he, too, stopped to delight in this beautiful scene.