nature: November 2008 Archives

In THE BEST RICE, a list of points of composition I put together a while back where each letter corresponds to a photographic point, entrance and exit is one "e".

Here, in this photo of Brigus, Newfoundland, the tiny road leads up to the town. From there, let your eye wander over the churches, the wall of rocky mountains, the colorful fall colors and the man walking his dog.

Newfoundland is a wonderful place to visit, and during any time of the year, you'll find photos worth framing at every turn. The ferry trip to the west side of the island is about six hours, the east side about 17 hours. Once on the island, view the icebergs, moose, whales, and enjoy the company of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. And you won't have to fight the elbow-to-elbow tourists as you would on Alaska cruises.

While at the Brigus Blueberry Festival, we sampled all the local food, including fish and brewis, fried cod tongues and cod jerky. Being an island, much of the economy is based on fishing, and they eat what they catch. For a recipe for fish and brewis, click here. For a recipe for fried cod tongues, click here. The latter recipe I gleaned from Joyces Fine Cooking. Honest. Be aware, both are very, very salty.

The scenery is varied, from Scandanavian-looking fiords to forests to sparse tundra. Remember, they don't call Newfoundland "The Rock" for nothing.

Yep, winter's getting here in a hurry and my sister in Mentor, Ohio, shoveled about five inches of snow Monday. Mentor is just east of Cleveland in the famed snowbelt area on Lake Erie, so they have learned to expect it. We have no snow yet, but...

But the critters around my house and probably yours as well, are hitting the feeders with a fury. The birds are emptying the sunflowers seeds in half the time it usually takes, and the neighborhood squirrels, well, they'll eat anything that doesn't move. I keep a tin garbage can full of corn-on-the-cob so they'll stuff themselves with that and not the sunflower seeds, but they were even walking around on the can this afternoon, trying to find away inside.

For tips on feeding birds in winter, click here

For tips on how to keep squirrels off bird feeders, click here

Now, when that doesn 't work, be careful of leaving anything edible outside. While playing tennis, I left a bag of animals crackers on the court. Within minutes, this one decided it was his/hers.

Another good lesson-- keep a camera handy wherever you go.