eG Foodblog: Smithy - Clinging to Summer's Backside in Duluth

[mizducky]

I think Smokey Kendalls' and Lou's Fish House are prime examples of the way things used to be along the North Shore, and in some places continue to be.  They have a variety of fish caught around here that they smoke themselves, so you'll see smoked herring, smoked lake trout, smoked cisco, but you're not likely to see artisan cheeses.  The Northern Waters Smokehaus in Duluth that I frequent carries smoked salmon and trout only, with a variety of coatings, but they also carry artisan cheeses and specialty meats like andouille sausage.  They've gone upscale.  I'm really hoping to get some photos of the old and the new, to show how much things have changed here in the last 20 years.

When I stopped in at Lou's, I looked around, scoped out the selection, and planned to stop by during the blog.  Then I decided, "what the heck, I have the camera now" and went out to the car to get it.  In I came, camera in hand.

Counter lady: "May I help you?"

Me: "Well, I came in to buy some things, but I also wonder whether you'd mind my taking some photos."

She: "Photos?  Why?"

Me: "Have you ever heard of a blog?" (blank look) "Web log?" (more blank look) "Well, I'm going to be doing an online documentary of the food I eat for the next week.  I'd like to show off some of the North Shore businesses, and I wonder if I could take some photos of your food?"

She: "Nope.  No photos.  Here's a map of the Duluth/Superior area that you can show your friends.  Tell them we've been featured in National Geographic, and will be in next month's issue of Midwest Living."

I tried a couple more times to explain what was going on, and got a business card out of her.  All in all, I came away reminded of hobbits and their deep suspicion of anything new.  The funny thing is, Lou's has a web site.  

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Heh. Given that she mentioned the two name publications, it almost sounds like she suspected you were a reporter for some other, unauthorized publication.

I'd never heard of cisco before. What do they taste like? (Smoked or fresh?) I did a little websearching and I got the possibly mistaken impression the smoked ones were a little like smoked whitefish chubs. (Sez the grrl who never met a smoked fish she didn't like.)

[Pam R]

Smithy - I'm looking forward to your blog - I went to university in NorthWestern MN and travel to MN at least once a year.

I haven't been to Duluth in about 15 years... what's the population? Good food shopping?

We're having the same weather here - but it's supposed to warm up by the end of the weekend - summer's not over yet!

[Smithy]

Some of them are in fact snakes. Those don't get invited back. 

edit: the kefta mkaouara is just good home cookin', nothing fancy in the least. The only thing that makes it weird for people is that they're not used to eating eggs for dinner. (We're talking easily-weirded out types here.) But the kefta Emshmel is a real showstopper in terms of flavor. In fact, I am making it again this Friday, by request. It's the sort of thing you'd want to serve a sweetish couscous after, but I think I'll just have a couple of moroccan-style salads and some nice bread, saffron panna cotta for dessert.

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Somehow, I'd have guessed you'd have weeded out all the snakes by now! Doesn't A drive them away for you before they're invited to dinner?

I'm glad you mentioned the eggs for dinner bit. You're right, it's a bit unusual, and yet I just recently learned a dish that's perfect for that: poached eggs (I like 'em runny) atop a bed of baby spinach that's been wilted with a hot vinaigrette. It's beautiful, tasty, and so easy that I almost did it tonight when I realized how late dinner would be. In the end, as you'll see, I stuck to Plan A (more or less) but the spinach and egg trick is one for the books.

I still don't know couscous, much less sweet couscous. Are you saying that it would traditionally be a dessert, instead of part of the main meal?

[snowangel]

I'd never heard of cisco before. What do they taste like? (Smoked or fresh?) I did a little websearching and I got the possibly mistaken impression the smoked ones were a little like smoked whitefish chubs. (Sez the grrl who never met a smoked fish she didn't like.)

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Smithy is probably asleep. Cisco's are a fish that are fairly small (like 10" fatter rather than wider). They favor cold fresh water; they tend to be found in deep, clear, cold lakes, and smoke rather intensely because of the fat.

I love smoked ciscos. I've never had a cisco that was not smoked. Nor have I ever caught a cisco.

Now, Smithy can add her comments.

[Behemoth]

I still don't know couscous, much less sweet couscous.  Are you saying that it would traditionally be a dessert, instead of part of the main meal?

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No no, I just meant that some of the savory couscous recipes involve sweet ingredients, e.g. chicken with saffron, honey and raisins. Kind of a nice switch after eating something with very salty/savory ingredients such as preserved lemons and olives.

But there are some couscous recipes that are meant for dessert. (Paula Wolfert posted one called "bil zbib" on chefzadi's blog a while back...)

[Smithy]

I'm amazed to see how many people really do cook middle eastern food at home - I mean, lots of people enjoy Chinese food, but far fewer cook genuinely Chinese dishes at home. Hope you do get to try a new recipe over the weekend...should we be praying for more fog???

A red herring query, if it's not too out of line...what do you think is a good minimum age to start flying lessons? I live not far from a well-equipped airfield. My elder son was bitten good and hard by the aviation bug several years back, and wants to be an aeronautical engineer. Serves me right for spending his lifetime translating aviation safety reports, with a houseful of books on airplanes...of course, he wants to learn to fly them too.

Meanwhile, we know every picnic spot in the county which is near a runway, under a flight path, looks down over an airfield...

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Oh, I plan to try at least one new recipe over the weekend. I just flat told my students I wasn't available on Saturday afternoon. We have a glider by-day planned for Sunday, but if that is called for rain I'll actually have a day home. I love those rainy days, too!

I don't know about the others, but my take on the Middle Eastern food is that I like it a lot, it isn't all that difficult (at least, not at the level I attempt) and it's the only way I can get it when I'm around here. On the other hand, I have yet ever to attempt a Japanese recipe, and I'll bet you cook those all the time. Is it a question of exposure? Or is it a question of critical mass here on eGullet, that a number of Middle Eastern food enthusiasts are encouraging each other and distorting your sense of how common it is? I don't know the answer to that question. I do know I have a limited number of friends in this area to whom I'd serve Middle Eastern food, because they think it's too far out of the norm.

OK, we can justify a bit of a flying discussion now. Unless a child has ready access to a flying adult - say, a parent or parent's friend who flies frequently and likes to take kids along - I think it's best to wait until around 15 or 16 to start taking serious flight lessons. An occasional flight of the gee-this-is-fun-look-what-we-can-do! variety is great, but actual lessons are usually overkill before then. There are a couple of reasons for that. The biggest reason is that, assuming New Zealand's rule are the same as in the USA, your son won't be able to solo an airplane until he's 16, nor get his private pilot's license until he's 17. (The age limits are younger for gliders and balloons, and those can be good ways to start kids off earlier.) I've seen kids lose interest, despite initial enthusiasm and parents who were fully supportive, because they went about as far as they could go until they could legally solo. On the other hand if they wait until they can progress steadily and get the license, they won't be hearing "Why is it taking you so long? You must be really stooopid" from their friends. The other reason is that kids need a certain degree of mental maturity before they're ready, really, to be pilots. Don't get me started about "youngest pilot to fly across country" stories. Those kids aren't making the decisions. If your son has already decided he wants to be an aeronautical engineer, maybe he does have the mental maturity? How old is he?

Meanwhile, I understand all about scoping out good places to eat near airport, under approach paths, etc. I used to take my lunch out to the local airport and turn on my portable aviation radio so I could listen to the chatter while I ate. Our Saturday Morning Breakfast, which I may or may not attend this week, is at the airport. People keep flying in earlier in hopes of landing before the gang is assembled at the restaurant. The picture windows are huge, and there's always an audience.

[Smithy]

I'd never heard of cisco before. What do they taste like? (Smoked or fresh?) I did a little websearching and I got the possibly mistaken impression the smoked ones were a little like smoked whitefish chubs. (Sez the grrl who never met a smoked fish she didn't like.)

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Smithy is probably asleep. Cisco's are a fish that are fairly small (like 10" fatter rather than wider). They favor cold fresh water; they tend to be found in deep, clear, cold lakes, and smoke rather intensely because of the fat.

I love smoked ciscos. I've never had a cisco that was not smoked. Nor have I ever caught a cisco.

Now, Smithy can add her comments.

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I'm not asleep yet, although I should be, and I will be soon. Thanks for answer, Susan; it was better than I could have done.

I think I'll call Kendall's early next week (to keep them open) and go get a selection of smoked fish. Then I'll have a tasting...private, with photos and reports. Dogs and cats not allowed. It's been a long time since I had ciscos, but your description is spot-on.

[Smithy]

I see basil, parsley and tarragon?

Cute cat!!!

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She's a sweetie, the smallest and most delicate of our family. Although her given name is Tigger, I often call her "Lacy Lynx".

Hmm. No tarragon in the pictures I've shown. 2 out of 3 isn't bad, though!

[Behemoth]

Since we're on the flying tangent -- a friend of ours with a pilot's license from Germany came by to visit last year. We have a little airfield here where it is apparently relatively cheap to rent a plane, he took us for a spin. Fun! I would have thought you would feel the wind a lot more in a little 4-seater but it was like being in a car. Anyway, A and I were sorely tempted to take lessons but got bogged down with all the work and moving-related stuff soon after that.

Anyway, you are a short flight away from me so if you want to do the $100 burger run sometime (or in my case, maybe $100 coucous run) feel quite welcome.

[snowangel]

I'd never heard of cisco before. What do they taste like? (Smoked or fresh?) I did a little websearching and I got the possibly mistaken impression the smoked ones were a little like smoked whitefish chubs. (Sez the grrl who never met a smoked fish she didn't like.)

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Smithy is probably asleep. Cisco's are a fish that are fairly small (like 10" fatter rather than wider). They favor cold fresh water; they tend to be found in deep, clear, cold lakes, and smoke rather intensely because of the fat.

I love smoked ciscos. I've never had a cisco that was not smoked. Nor have I ever caught a cisco.

Now, Smithy can add her comments.

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I'm not asleep yet, although I should be, and I will be soon. Thanks for answer, Susan; it was better than I could have done.

I think I'll call Kendall's early next week (to keep them open) and go get a selection of smoked fish. Then I'll have a tasting...private, with photos and reports. Dogs and cats not allowed. It's been a long time since I had ciscos, but your description is spot-on.

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Good thing. Take pictures. They are laid back enough that they won't care. And, probably be flattered. If any member of my family goes anywhere near Duluth and doesn't come back with a chunk of sugar smoked salmon (for them) and a couple of ciscos (for me) is dead meat. There is also a great yarn shop on the lake side of the highway in Knife River (if you are a knitter).

So, let's talk about where you get stuff in Duluth other than Farmer's Market produce and smoked meat. Do tell. Meat, spices, odd stuff.

[Smithy]

Thanks for all the welcomes and comments, y'all! I'll have to respond to more of them tomorrow, because I was supposed to be in bed over an hour ago, but I'm delighted to see some response, and I'll get to them.

Late hour or no, I want to give you a snapshot of dinner.

I got home quite a bit later than planned, but this morning I'd begun my dinner preparations by putting a couple of venison tenderloins from last year's deer into my favorite marinade recipe. I left it marinading for the day. Since it was frozen this morning the meat looked more like angular sausages than anything else. I erased those photos.

The plan tonight was to cut up and marinade some other vegetables for the grill, make a pilaf, and have a shish-kabob of the marinaded venison, onions, peppers, mushrooms. I dithered briefly (see earlier post) over scrapping the whole idea in favor of spinach and eggs, then decided just to ignore the veggie marinade and fire up the grill. For one thing, the venison was thawed, and for another, I'm out of room in the dishwasher and I didn't want to dirty up any more dishes than necessary.

Red peppers (from the grocery store), cherry tomatoes (picked off my vine, in the dark, so some aren't quite ripe), onions and portabellas, also from the store. Those sausagey things in the plastic dish are my venison tenderloins, marinading in my favorite all-purpose marinade.

The vegetables would have benefited from some marinading too, but while I was cutting things up and heating the grill, here's what else was going on:

Chow time for whoever happened to be in.

3 of our 5 cats like pouch cat food with gravy in it, but they really only like the gravy part. The dog has finally been convinced that I Am Bigger and Meaner Than He Is, and He Must Wait until the cats have gotten what they want, and enough of it, and THEN he can do the cleanup of their leftovers. (He has plenty of his own food, mind, that's better for him. He wants the cat food.) Mischke is a Siberian Husky, with "stubborn" and "what's in it for me?" embedded in his DNA. He's also a doggie teenager. But by golly, he's learning to wait his turn....sortof...

My meal preparation has gotten this far while Mischke waited his turn:

At last, his wait is over.

Parents of teenagers will know how much oversight is required to make sure the rules are followed. They'll also know how gratifying it is to turn one's back or leave the room, come back in some time later, and find that the rules are STILL being followed!

Meanwhile, the grill has been hot and the food has been cooking. Here it is, fresh off the grill:

Here's the meal, up close and personal:

It really did need to be put over a pilaf, and/or have more sauce tossed with it, but hey, it was 10 p.m. To be honest, if I hadn't been blogging I might have eaten a hunk of cheese, tended the animals and gone to bed...but then, I wouldn't have had any leftovers for sandwiches tomorrow.

Caveats aside, this came out well. The meat was tender and had a lovely flavor. This marinade has olive oil, lemon juice, onions, and a few other things, and it works brilliantly with lamb, venison, chicken, and tri-tip steak. Someone else reports that it's good on pork too, although I haven't tried that.

I have to be up at zero-dark-thirty for my day at Da Range, so I'd better hit the sack. I'll be back tomorrow night (insha-allah) with more photos and information, anwers to the questions I haven't gotten to yet, and - I hope - more time to cook and blog. Keep those questions coming, folks, and let me know what you'd like to see!

P.S. I'm afraid to try to answer the "what's Moroccan cooking like" question too, so Behemoth started you off in a good direction. Maybe someone with a better grip on the topic can jump in with a good description.

[helenjp]

Hmm...kebabs look good! I'm surprised to see the venison looking so tender...

Also pleased to hear about "ciscos" - I'd come across the word and never had a clue what it referred to - might have been a new type of donut for all I could tell.

Smoked fish is a big favorite here too, and it's perfect for lunchbox meals.

My son is 13, so we'll be on the ground with binoculars for a while yet.

[Swisskaese]

I still don't know couscous, much less sweet couscous.  Are you saying that it would traditionally be a dessert, instead of part of the main meal?

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No no, I just meant that some of the savory couscous recipes involve sweet ingredients, e.g. chicken with saffron, honey and raisins. Kind of a nice switch after eating something with very salty/savory ingredients such as preserved lemons and olives.

But there are some couscous recipes that are meant for dessert. (Paula Wolfert posted one called "bil zbib" on chefzadi's blog a while back...)

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You can also have couscous for breakfast. You make it with hot milk instead of water and put raisins, nuts, dried and/or fresh fruit. I drizzle a little honey on top or if I am really feeling decadent, I had a little cream.

[liamsaunt]

The orange herb pot looks like it contains parsely, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Simon and Garfunkel! Am I right?

[Lori in PA]

I can only make out parsley, sage, and thyme, but there is a larger-leafed something behind -- is it in the pot with the petunias?

[Marmish]

P.S.  I'm afraid to try to answer the "what's Moroccan cooking like" question too, so Behemoth started you off in a good direction.  Maybe someone with a better grip on the topic can jump in with a good description.

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Just start with the dishes mentioned upthread. No need for a thesis! Sorry I wasn't more clear.

[Smithy]

The orange herb pot looks like it contains parsely, sage, rosemary, and thyme.  Simon and Garfunkel!    Am I right?

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Bingo! My pea-brain enjoyed the visual pun during the planting. As I recall, Jackal10 did the same thing.

[Smithy]

I can only make out parsley, sage, and thyme, but there is a larger-leafed something behind -- is it in the pot with the petunias?

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There's a good-sized sorrel sticking out from among the petunias. I think I've finally managed to get sorrel established in my main flower bed, but I keep trying to get more to thrive. It seems to like partial shade, or shaded roots, judging by where it's growing best. The sorrel in the front yard, with bare dirt, is barely hanging on. Then again, that might be because my husband went overboard with the weed-n'-feed earlier this year...he actually managed to kill off some mint in that spot.

[Smithy]

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. --Yiddish proverb

insha-allah -- Arabic expression meaning, "God willing"

Everything is subject to interference. The only reason anything gets done is that interference is itself subject to interference. --one of Murphy's corollaries

Sorry I've been away from this blog longer than planned. Yesterday I was out the door before 6 a.m. and on the road to the Iron Range. Partway through the day I started getting persistent messages from my cell phone, announcing that I had voice mail even though the reception was too lousy to get the messages. When I finally connected, it was to learn that a nephew and his son wanted to stop over for the night, on their way north camping. The excursion, coupled with the visitors and today's plans, kept me from posting - although not from eating! - until now.

It'll be a while before I can get photos uploaded and the stories written, so here in the meantime are photos of the local wildlife we support. Aside from feeding and running around with cats and dog, the other regular food duties are to keep the feeders filled. Yesterday when I came home I was divebombed by hungry hummingbirds, wondering why their food had run out. Last year we had at least 2 families' worth of hummers, we think, because there were sometimes as many as 8 of the little devils jousting for food. This year we've only seen 4 at once, but they're still entertaining - even better than a Calder mobile.

With 4 "flowers" and 3 birds, you'd think they could share, wouldn't you? But they're usually busy fighting for dominance. It looks as though they expend more energy arguing than they could pick up at the feeder, but that must not be true.

The goldfinches are still in their summer plumage. Handsome, aren't they?

We have both downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers coming to the feeder, but they're so shy it's hard to get a good shot. The pileated woodpeckers rattle and kack around the yard, but they don't come by the house. This one's a female downy woodpecker.

I didn't get a picture of the bats cruising around in the pre-dawn light catching bugs yesterday morning, but I cheered them on. When it comes to mosquitoes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Besides, those bats are wonderful aerobats.

I've been eating a salad and drinking water as I typed this, but haven't got that photo yet either. Green salad of spinach, lettuce, diced cucumber, cherry tomatoes warm from our deck. Vinaigrette of garlic-and-salt paste mixed with lemon juice, date vinegar and olive oil. Finished with pepper. Photos to come if they're any good; the battery ran down on the good camera and I had to use the old grainy backup.

[helenjp]

Thanks for those pix - son2 was fascinated at the different feeders for wild birds - he was disappointed when I vetoed hanging a seed bell outdoors in our rainy climate, but now has the idea of wrapping it in mesh.

[Smithy]

Thanks for those pix - son2 was fascinated at the different feeders for wild birds - he was disappointed when I vetoed hanging a seed bell outdoors in our rainy climate, but now has the idea of wrapping it in mesh.

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You can also make feeders out of inverted plastic pop bottles. There's of course a commercially-produced plastic gizmo that screws onto the bottle that makes the seed feeder tray, but I've seen plans for suspending something like a small tin pie plate below the bottle neck to act as a seed catcher. Or you can keep the bottle upright (or capped) and cut small holes in the sides to hold perches (chopsticks? pencils?) with slightly large holes just above for the birds to reach through. That could be a good project for you and your son.

[Smithy]

I've written about how things have changed along the North Shore. The Vanilla Bean Bakery in Two Harbors (about 28 miles upshore from Duluth) is a prime example. There have been a couple of cafes in town for years, but only about 10 years ago - maybe less - did a bakery come in that offered freshly baked breads every day, a variety of muffins and filled pastries along with the usual donuts, and cookies that were softer than a hockey puck. There's a restaurant too, although I'm fuzzy on their hours or offerings and I'm not sure I've ever eaten there. They call themselves a "bistro style" cafe, for what that's worth.

I needed some employee "bribes" so I stopped in to get a selection of sweets. At slightly after 6 a.m. they were almost sold out already, and I did a good job of clearing out more. The photos are from just after we started.

I am particularly fond of their muffins - tart raspberries, sweet tender dough, far more than I need to eat at once, but I do my duty.

I drove inland some 60 miles, not quite as the crow flies, toward the eastern end of the Iron Range. I'd hoped to be able to show you a moose, or some deer, from my drive, as they're usually happy to oblige. I did almost hit a deer or two with my car (deer are far more of a road hazard than other vehicles around here) but by the time I'd braked they were long gone. The great blue heron I disturbed also wasn't willing to wait for the camera, alas. The only entertaining thing I could photograph was this sign, where a bridge is being reconstructed and the road is down to one lane: Does that tell you something about the amount of traffic in the back woods?

Lunch was constructed from the previous night's meal. The remaining venison tenderloin, some mushroom slices, a bit of the other vegetables, with a scattering of tarragon and basil from the garden and a dollop of dijon mustard under it all was lunch. I'd eaten the first pita already before I remembered the camera. I must say, the mustard really added to the flavors. Next time I'll try that on the initial dish.

[TheFoodTutor]

Wow. Very cool animal pictures, of both domesticated and undomesticated critters. I've always wondered about taking pictures of hummingbirds, since you never know exactly where their wings will be when you snap the shot, so you can't compose the photo just the way you'd like to.

Glad you're blogging, and I wanted to mention how lovely your pictures are, though I'll have to go back and look at the whole blog after it's finished sometime later. My new job is keeping my so busy I don't have time to be on-line much.

P.S. - My cats like the food with the stinky gravy in the pouches, too.

[Smithy]

Babbitt, Palo, Waasa, Embarrass. The Iron Range town names still seem exotic to me, even after 2+ decades in this area; they're so different from the Spanish names I grew up with in California. People from around here stumble over "La Jolla" (pronounced "la HOya") but have no trouble with "Chequamagon" (pronounced "she WAH ma gen", admittedly an Indian name, not Slavic or Finnish or Italian). They also have no trouble with "potica", but I'll get to that.

I started my cross-Range drive at Babbitt and headed west. The first stop, because I had the camera, was Embarrass. A few years ago they won the bragging rights of being the nation's cold spot; previously it had been Tower, Minnesota, a little farther north. Life can be pretty slow up here, just as Garrison Keillor describes it, and people are easily amused. On the other hand, it takes a special mentality and temperament to just be able to stick it out and keep working when it's bitterly cold. (This is still true for many mining jobs. If something breaks down, you fix it. You can't always move it into a nice warm shop.) It was even harder in the pioneer days, not all that long ago, when all the food had to be grown locally and put up for the winter, or else you went without. I am keenly grateful to have fruit or vegetables out of season, if necessary, although I draw the line at winter stone fruits, and I'm even more grateful to have ripe produce - really ripe produce, trucked or flown in from not too far away - when it can't be grown here. I really think the climate affects cultures in ways we don't necessarily recognize on a day-by-day basis; it's easy to be carefree if you don't have to plan food carefully. The carved statue next to this "weather center" is of a pioneer farmer.

Embarrass has a little information center about the winter of 1996, when they had 27 or more days in a row of subzero (F) weather. New records kept being set: first, at -54F, then down to -64F. The -64F was the record-breaker, when the Tower observers said "liars!" But the thermometer was photographed at -64F, then sent away to Taylor Instruments for a calibration check, and certified as being accurate. (At the time I lived in Castle Danger, on the North Shore where Lake Superior has a moderating effect. It only got down to -44F there.) Part of this little information center is a thermometer, with the temperature marked down to the appropriate level. I should mention that at some point the official National Weather Service thermometer broke, or froze, or separated, or some such. That was an earlier year, I think, but they knew it had quit working somewhere below -50F.

Inside the "weather station" is a bunch of newspaper articles, letters, and photos documenting that bitter winter. One of those articles led with the information that, if it gets cold enough, you can use a banana to drive a nail into wood. It had been done on the -54F night. There's a food link for you!

Past Embarrass there are Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, Palo, Waasa. For those of you who've heard or read The Finn Who Would Not Take a Sauna:

Yes, Virginia, there IS a Biwabik. There's also an Eveleth, where they really do have a Miner's Ball every year.

There's also a Virginia, but I'll get to that in a moment. I drove past Gilbert, wishing I had time to stop at The Whistling Bird. Of all things, in this area settled by waves of Polish and Italian and German and Slovenian and Finnish and Irish immigrants, there is a Jamaican Restaurant. Don't miss it. They somehow manage to get good seafood all the way up here, but it you aren't a seafood person there are chicken jerks and other meat dishes. The food is outstanding and spicy, the drinks luscious and creative, and the owner - if he stops by to chat - will give a description of the offerings that is a sensual experience in itself. You may need reservations, but it's worth it.

I had to stop my tour in Virginia, only halfway across the Range, but there they have the Italian Bakery.

The locals agree that this bakery makes the best potica around. I'll have photos of that later, but in the meantime: would anyone care to guess how that word is pronounced? Iron Rangers need not apply to this game.

Edited to fix photo.

Edited August 20, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[Smithy]

Wow. Very cool animal pictures, of both domesticated and undomesticated critters. I've always wondered about taking pictures of hummingbirds, since you never know exactly where their wings will be when you snap the shot, so you can't compose the photo just the way you'd like to.

Glad you're blogging, and I wanted to mention how lovely your pictures are, though I'll have to go back and look at the whole blog after it's finished sometime later. My new job is keeping my so busy I don't have time to be on-line much.

P.S. - My cats like the food with the stinky gravy in the pouches, too. 

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Thank you! I tried many times to get those hummers. They zoom around so fast, and the camera insists on focusing someplace else. I was glad to get one bird out of the three clearly, anyway.