Lawn vs Leaf

There's no escaping the fact that I think raking prior to every tree being bare is just plain wasted effort. Result? Our lawn, once dirt pools with young newly hatched grass seed islands, is now hopelessly choked with leaves. But the leaves are pretty. Northeast lovely. They even crunch underfoot superbly, much better than I remember as a child. They beg to have a tackle football game played upon them. With cleats. Aerate the soil, or some such. And there's still that fall nip in the air, a few leaves still clinging to the branches of our maples, and there's even one tree in the neighborhood that's still green. When its leaves finally fall. I'll get out the grain shovel, move some snow around and then rake.