Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: three

(+7 insets!) (big is better for this pano! :) (Please scroll down to "Today's Pictures" to learn about the insets! :) Trip Talk: Cheese Snobs Who doesn't love cheese? I'm sure there are plenty out there but I've been a fan since I first tried it as a kid. As an adult, I've had my trials with it though, because most cheese is high in fat--for many years I was a fiend about keeping the fat in my diet at the lowest possible amount, so usually I'd pass on cheese. However, when Steve and I changed over to a ketogenic lifestyle, my whole outlook on fat changed. It took me a while to trust the concept that fat doesn't make you fat, but once I proved it to myself, suddenly foods like cheese and sausage were no longer evil and to be avoided at all costs! Hooray for CHEESE!! Steve and I have become huge fans of cheese and love trying out new types. Visiting Provence, France a couple of years back was like stepping into Cheese Heaven…Europe really has the market cornered in regards to specialty cheeses and we were just blown away by the incredible variety. We have lots of choices here in the US but it's maybe 10% of what you can find in Europe. Well-stocked specialty cheese shops here are really nice but still, they don't come close. Even though we've developed a pretty good understanding of what makes a good cheese, we are quite happy with non-gourmet cheese--honestly, the extremely minor difference isn't usually worth the high price in our book. Of course there are exceptions…just miles from our home is the Rogue Creamery, home to one of the best Blue Cheeses in the world! When we visit, we take home a wedge of their truly exceptional Rogue River Blue …it is in a class all by itself! Anyway, whenever we go to a creamery, we love to try the samples and load up all the cheeses that were wonderful. Of course this means we almost always get more cheese than we can possibly eat in the next six months but we can't resist! Alas, it was a huge disappointment when we entered Qualicum Cheesework's little shop and tried their few offerings. Bland, plain, boring, flavorless, unexceptional in all regards, there wasn't a single cheese that was even remotely special. Talk about feeling disappointed! After the fantastic farm tour and learning about their operation from A to Z, we couldn't wait to dump our coins on the counter and bring home piles of cheeses to remember this place by. They didn't even carry other company's cheeses--but perhaps it would embarrass them when all of the other cheeses sold out and none of theirs was touched? Steve and I were reminded of the must-miss, overpriced joke of a cheese "festival" we went to last year--organized by Rogue Creamery…they should be ashamed!!--that featured a paltry handful of creameries selling overpriced cheeses stuffed into a tiny tent with far too many people shoving and pushing for air space. Two of the perhaps ten cheeseries were just like Qualicum Cheeseworks and we couldn't understand why they were wasting their time on their horrible attempts at making cheese, especially when compared to the excellent--albeit overpriced--cheeseries right next to them. Truthfully, who am I to talk?--I've never made cheese!--but I have a developed palette and it's not hard to judge the quality of a cheese! We were also disappointed that Qualicum Cheeseworks didn't offer fresh cream for sale--we'd hoped to buy some for our lovely creamy espressos we have every day. However, their reasoning was fair--they don't pasteurize their cream and it would go bad too quickly to make it worthwhile to keep at their shop. *tears of sadness* They did, however, have a really cool offering! Fresh milk on tap where you can buy a bottle or bring your own and fill up at a reasonable price! Alas, we don't drink milk (not enough fat, lol!) so we could only watch people filling their bottles, but what a fun idea! If you take out their shop, Morningstar Farms was a total hit with us. It's the only time we've ever gotten the chance to tour a farm before and learn about the whole process. This was so much fun and one of the countless highlights of our trip! Today's Pictures My main picture today would have been perfect for Happy Fence Friday! Morningstar Farms had Holsteins as their majority in dairy cattle, though they had a few Jersey's too. It was wonderful to see them all, and what fine condition their stock was in. Happy, healthy, well-fed and with plenty of room to graze and relax. A total spa for moo-moos! :) The insets are quite the variety! The first one features a pair of cows, the left of which was mooing non-stop! Unfortunately the graininess of this image was really horrible and I nearly tossed the shot but I couldn't stop looking at this funny expressions on their faces! I decided it was worth the time so I played with filters until I was able to use the image…hopefully you guys find it to be fun and amusing too! :) (If only it was higher quality, I'd have made it my main image!) Insets 2 and 3 show a brand-new calf! We obviously arrived at the height of their calving season--THREE were born that day, two while we were there! What fun to see them all wet and wobbly, mom licking and nuzzling them towards the milk station! :) What a wonderful experience for us. We didn't actually see them being born but it was such a joy to see them minutes old and standing for the first time, shaking their heads and wagging their tails. Such dear babies. :) Inset 4--HOLY PSYCHEDELIC MADNESS, BATMAN!! :D LOL, ok, so they had a pair of pot-belly piggies in the petting area and of the two, only this one was illuminated well and standing. Unfortunately it was also a pale greyish-pink and covered in spiky, yellowy-anemic hair. There was absolutely no way to make that ugly pig look nice--and coming from a person who adores piggies, that's saying something. That being said, I couldn't leave this guy out of my lineup--it was time to break out the artistic filters! WHAT FUN! After going to town with layers and filtering, I must admit that I absolutely love this shot--from blah and ugly to fun and fantastic--just to be sure I wasn't crazy, I showed it to Steve, and I was glad to see that he loved it too! :) What do you think? Horrible or neato? :D The final three pictures show the darling Welsh ponies with a close-up of the chestnut's sleepy face. The final picture shows the interesting massive group of aqua/teal and white-wrapped, round hay bales that are stored next to the big cow barn. All of the ones up-front were just for the ponies and everything behind was for the cattle…and what you see wasn't the whole lot, which was pretty staggering in totality. Given that this area gets about 45 inches of snow during the winter months, it's understandable they have so much hay set aside! * * * Pam, it was fun to read about your experiences with farms as a youngster. There are few things as iconic or important in our history. I love that as we're getting older, more and more people are working to preserve aspects of our past farming history. Online resources abound to share past methods. Reenactment farms are located in many places for visiting and festivals revolving around how things once were are grand celebrations I'd love to visit if we're lucky enough some day! I have been rereading the Little House on the Prairie books and now, as a 55-yr old, it's been a great delight to be able to cross-reference on the internet to see and understand all of the aspects of farming and homesteading life back at the 1900's turn of the century. I hope life is treating you well these days, Pammy! :) Stay warm and cozy--it's a cold day here and I bet it is in OK too! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 3/2/20; highest placement #9.

Our springs are often very rainy, and it's wonderful to sneak out between showers to get pictures of the flowers with droplets on them. Here are some jonquils drenched after a storm. :)

One of the cool things about mushrooms is how unique they can be up close. Towering above them, mushrooms appear nearly identical to one another, but through a macro lens, the differences are distinct. I think this one looks like an umbrella, nestled against a trio of grass blades.

To me, mushrooms are forest fairies. When I find them, each comes with its own wonderful story. Take this trio, for example.... I was wandering around our lower forest on Halloween 2014, when I thought I heard the tell-tale tinkle of laughter. Trained to instantly freeze at the sound, I slowly peered around the tree in my path. Another tinkle and a pair of whispers gave me a direction to look, and...there they were! A family of mushroom fairies, out for a autumn stroll. I resisted the urge to giggle at the antics of the child, who was taller than his mother, but very lanky indeed. Bouncing from pebble to stick to lump of moss, this baby moved about on an invisible cushion of air. "Shhhhhh," said the smaller of the adults in a high-pitched squeak. That would be the mother, I mused to myself, and my eyes flicked to the tallest, who looked about warily but with confidence. "Little One, you must keep quiet...you never know what might hear you." Undeterred, Little One's gay laughter tinkled up to my ears and he continued playing among the forest's undergrowth. Suddenly, a Stellar's Jay flew past and landed on a tree nearby, cawing noisily and puffing its feathers to show the world who was boss. In a flash, the three mushroom fairies moved to the protection of a stump and pulled together into a protective group. I saw my opportunity, raised my camera and took their picture while they looked on in stunned amazement. With a grin and a wave, I slipped away to leave them in peace. See what I mean? There are stories with every mushroom I find... :)

I was on my way back to the house after getting my foggy tree shots when I heard tiny happy squeals and yelling, so I froze and turned to look. Charging over the moss the through forests of twigs and grass ran three little munchkins, covered with morning frost! I couldn't resist a giggle when two of them caught the third and they tickled her while she laughed in a chorus of tiny tinkling bells. They immediately stood and looked my way and I got their picture. Quick as a flash they burst into giggles and bounded away, sliding down an icy boulder and off into the trees! Yay for mushroom fairies! :) Michael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator. Wikipedia: Michael Dolan