The squirrels are very busy at the moment, gathering nuts, acorns and seeds for their winter-stashes, I presume.
Funny enough I've seen them burying their acorns only to have a chipmunk dig it up right behind them, stuff it in his cheeks and take it off to it's own den.

Apparently having a well-stocked supply of buried acorns in winter is essential for the next generation of squirrels, since most breed in late winter (and late summer) and their ability to conceive and raise young is dependent on food resources.

The warm fall light of late is especially pretty during the early morning hours (and those 'golden' evening hours of course) and my morning hikes are wonderfully crisp and full of color ..

 

Just look at this golden, little Maple! So gorgeous!

Most of 'our' little Blueberry patch is still green but for this one bush that has almost completely turned. No clue as for why only that one?
The maples in Doug's yard are already letting some leaves fall .. the continuing drought has probably something to do with it as well ..

Even the weeds in the orchard are looking pretty while glistening in the morning sun ..

Most flowers are spent but for some sunflowers and these colorful zinnias ..

                                                

And of course the roses .. many of them will flower all the way into winter!

                  

There's lots of activity in the orchards around town because the harvest of the first grapes has started.

                                                                                            

I'm still 'harvesting' loads of raspberries. I pick a container full every other day or so and it looks like there's still many more to come!



A lot will depend on the weather of course, but besides the cool mornings and evenings the days are still very warm.
Portland broke records on both Saturday (85F) as well as Sunday (87F)!



I was happy to be out of the sun on Saturday since I went shopping in the Pacific Northwest’s premier shopping center, or so they say, 'Washington Square shopping Mall' in Tigard.
James was doing some golf-related stuff nearby (a free swing-analysis) and had dropped me off for a couple of hours of browsing the stores.

Now I'm totally not a 'shopper' and a Saturday certainly wouldn't be a day I would have chosen if I had the chance, but there you go .. I gave it the 'E' for effort.
As I suspected none of the stores really thrilled me, my 'style' being rather eclectic/bohemian, nothing too fancy or trendy or 'in vogue' and being very picky on top of that, but it was fun seeing something different than our limited small-town stores around Newberg.

Two of the many food establishments were interesting, both had long lines in front to get in but I had never heard of them, not that that counts for anything of course ..
One of them was a restaurant called Din Tai Fung:

It specializes in authentic but affordable Taiwanese food, most notably their signature Xiaolongbao (traditional steamed pork dumplings), and their Hong Kong branch even has a Michelin star!
Their menu is mostly pork-, rice-, and noodle-based, with dozens of soups, noodles, rice dishes, traditional desserts, and almost twenty varieties of dumplings.

While waiting in line you can watch them make their dumplings through a window into the 'open' kitchen:

To finish up your meal, the chocolate mochi xiaolongbao is a very unusul treat.
The mochi dumplings, as the name suggests, are filled with a rich mixture of cocoa and rice mochi! We might have to go back one time to check it out!

The other food-related store that caught my attention was the 85°C Bakery Cafe:

This is definitely not an ordinary cafe. Each cup of coffee is individually brewed with Guatemalan coffee beans and each store features an in-shop bakery with over 50 varieties of pastries baked fresh hourly! And all that for a reasonable price, something that has been the main goal of creating the store .. affordable, nice bread for everybody.

The (also) Taiwan-bred chain, which has 1,000-plus locations worldwide, including four in San Diego, sells scores of baked goods and beverages that most Americans have never heard of before.
Among the Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino and European-style treats are a red bean-black sesame bread, espresso buns, marble taro loaves, pork sung buns, coconut snow cubes, Hokkaido cheese tarts, yudane chocolate cream cheese rolls and sea salt coffee.

It's been called “the Starbucks of China” for its ubiquity and uniformity.
Upon entering the store, you grab a tray, a tong and make your way along the display of breads.
Many of their buns are individually wrapped and they all look fantastic:

Can you believe that I didn't buy any of them? Thinking that I had to schlepp them around for a while wasn't such a good plan but sjeez .. I could have bought a few?

I did buy something in one of my favorite stores 'World Market', since it was the last store I was going in to:

I love Cost Plus. Unique, fun, and affordable imported items from EVERYWHERE! I spend way too much time in the food aisles inspecting unusual or new-to-me edibles, and especially any Dutch or German foods!

So, after a half a day of shopping, this was my loot:

I know, that looks rather disappointing, but believe me, for me .. it's a lot!
Funny thing .. those T-shirts I found outside the mall, at Old Navy, which is more my-kind-of-store ..