Another weekend shot, but after a cold start Saturday morning it really was a nice one.  Trees are starting to color up now, and the fall flowers are at their peak.  My Dahlias didn't do well during the miserably hot summer, but are making up for it now.  The Begonias and the Sedum are also looking lovely.  One oak tree on the next block is bright scarlet, but the rest are still very green.  Many of the Maples are multi-colored, and lovely mix of orange and green.  Hopefully we will have good color this fall.  I'll have to find an excuse to do a road trip to somewhere, just to see the colors.

Dinner on Friday evening at The Barbary Fig, a Mediterranean Restaurant in St. Paul.  We had liked it in the past and enjoyed it again this time.  The location was originally an old house transformed into an excellent deli that we used to visit regular when Jess was a small child - wow, that must have been 30 years ago.  Barbary Fig has been there for quite awhile.  Not sure why we don't go more often as we like that kind of food.  Just too many places to eat, too little time!  I had an appetizer of warm olives sauteed in oil with garlic and cayenne - excellent!  My entree was a bit different and I had Tangine Of Rabbit, I think the first time I had eaten rabbit.  Cooked with sweet potatoes and dried cherries, it was very good.

Saturday afternoon we picked up my mother and visited Pine Tree Orchards to buy apples.  Mom wanted Harrelsons and I bought Honeycrisps.  We'd both have bought Regents had there been any.  Pinetree has a wonderful bakery too, so I purchased Apple Cookies, mom bought Apple Donuts, and Ron got a loaf of Apple Bread.  We all enjoyed a slice of their excellent Apple Pie.  Wish I'd purchased a pie to bring home.  We normally go to Aamodts, but their pie is so bad I was a bit suspicious.  This pie was awesome, even the crust was good.

I had a long list of chores for the weekend, but didn't do a very good job of crossing things off. Too many of the chores required staying inside (things like dusting and vacuuming). There will be plenty of time for indoor chores later, but for now I will enjoy as much lovely fall weather as possible.

One thing that happened was not on my list - I ordered some Bettas. My fishkeeping affliction started with just one Betta, but I've been Betta-less for about a year. Lots of other fish, but no Bettas. I had removed the link for Aquabid.com off my computer screen to cut down my temptation to check in and look at available fish. This time I checked in anyway, saw a two lovely Red Dragon HM males, contacted their seller in Thailand to check the availability of matching females and bid on the two males. Got them and ordered the three females as well. They were shipped on Sunday to Linda Olson in Colorado, a Transhipper who clears the fish through customs, repacks and sends them on. I should have my new fish later this week!