There are times (some call them “Mondays”) when the world just feels amok. Things happen that could be described as “challenges” and I’m still not convinced that they make me a better person. For instance, the coffee maker, programmed to make elixir at 6:45am, spontaneously exploded and spewed coffee and grounds on the counters, into the cupboards, all over the floor, after flooding its own electronics. The result? Big mess, no coffee, broken coffee maker.

On days like that, you mop up the mess and try not to think about the headache of finding a new coffeemaker.

You also look for joy everywhere and anywhere, delighting in it when you finally find it.

 I dropped everyone off everywhere and decided to take a jaunt along Brookfield Road. Not knowing quite why, I swung into Pearltown Road and stopped at Lester’s Farm there.

In the past, I’ve noticed that they have an interesting assortment of critters. Their cows are not your usual cows and their sheep fit the same category. It being spring and all, I though I’d take a peak and see if there was anything interesting happening.

This is what greeted me as I approached the barn:

The Jersey calves always make me think of a fairly tale. With their huge brown eyes and soft faces, they look like creatures from Bambi.

I didn’t want to bother them, so these are all taken at a distance, with my trusty 200mm zoom lens.

There were also piglets running everywhere, dodging in and out of the barn and weaving expertly between the legs of the sheep.

The sheep are quite fascinating. A couple of years ago, I had a conversation with Jim Lester a few years ago about these sheep. They’re a Newfoundland heritage variety known as “St. Jacques Sheep“, from Fortune Bay, one of three distinctive breeds found in Newfoundland (the other two are the Bourgoynes Cove and Exploits Islands sheep). Their DNA is distinctive and they have been more or less maintained in a pure strain for hundreds of years. They shed their coats, often have mottled fleeces, are found in a wild array of patterns and many have horns. [As an aside, I have wondered if they’re distantly related to Jacob Sheep, who also have horns (albeit two sets) and are multi-coloured.]

There were, of course, lambs. Some were black, some multi-coloured and some white.

And that was just about what I needed to fortify me for the week.