Bob Foster

Ok.

I am/was a Blackberry user. Great business tool, no question. I like the keyboard, so I watched for more than a year as my son went on to produce iPhone applications.

I was still a Blackberry user. (You must get a lot of mistakes pushing virtual buttons on the sceen, don't you? Well, don't you???)

Then, the trackball was going on my 8330 Curve, and there was that unfortunate incident with my dropping the Blackberry into some water ... yikes! And even though it recovered, I had visions of things rusting inside. The time had come. I needed a replacement.

Someone mentioned 250,000 applications.

So I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 4, and I am amazed.

Please understand that I have been heavily involved with computers for a very long time. In my former career as an educator, I was responsible for leading a team who helped other teachers implement computer use in classrooms. I remember looking at my Palm Pilot, and taking to my team - "I wonder how ling it will be until they come out with a handheld dveice that does it all - phone, internet, photos, video, music, databases, etc."

Obviously, we are there, and well beyond that point now.

So, now I can easily

- answer my emails
- suft the 'Net
- text message
- listen to music
- check the most immediate weather forecast
- read books on Kindle
- get directions on GPS
- take 5 Mp pictures, or do complete house tours with 720p video (and edit them with iMovie)
- post videos to YouTube
- check in on Facebook
- watch movies on several sources, including YouTube
- use Skype
- go on eBay
- play games
- check out Google Earth, or Nasa broadcasts

and

well, thousands of things that I have not had time to explore in the 5 days that I have had the iPhone 4.

And all of the on a display where, honestly, there are no more dots. Just vibrant images.

Consider me ... sold.

I'm lucky enough to live out in the country on 29.9 acres, with the part surrounding our house being in a very wild state. When I parked my car today, this guy was looking at me from the wall. I set him on some leaf litter and took this picture.

Jabba The Hutt?

No, as you can likely tell from the pine needles, he was only about an inch and a half long - a common tree frog. It was nice to catch a picture of him, though, before he adjusted his camoflage to become part of the scenery.

A couple of thoughts struck me when I looked at this picture this evening.

To us, a tree frog is a tree frog, but my guess is that the individual markings we see around his mouth and eyes make this little fellow just as much an individual to his fellow frogs as we are to each other. And then my realtor self reflects on the thought that we never deal with generic "clients". Every person we meet is different, as is every solution, as we try to help them take the next important step in their lives.

My second thought was that I was really, really happy to see this little fellow on our property. Miners used to carry canaries into the mines to provide an early warning of when noxious gases might prove fatal. We now know that the greatly endangered amphibian population on this planet is telling us that we need to be much more cautious about how we are affecting the environment, for ourselves and all of the world's creatures.

These are large messages, but for now I need to settle back to enjoying my close encounter of the green kind today. I am happy that our place provides a good home for this fellow, and all his froggy freinds who live in and around our goldfish pond.

I hope that my grandchildren will also grow to live in a world they can share with creatures like these.

Despite many years of a declining monarch butterfly population here in southern Ontario, Canada, we have been lucky here on our rural land, partly because we maintain milkweed stands where they occur naturally on our roadsides and in hedgerows. Most years we still get a good showing of monarchs, at time with half a dozen or so seen fluttering around at once.

This year is different.

The milkweed is up, the fragrant flowers are fully open, but the monarchs are missing.

This morning I was driving through several of our rural roads with camera at the ready, and I found just one survivor. This one was quite intent to keep going, so I wasn't able to geet a good picture, but there is it is - July 13th, and this is the first and only monarch I have seen this year.





This CBS online broadcast from April 11, 2010 does a good job of describing the challenges the butterfly is facing in its winter nesting areas in Mexico.

If you would like further information about this problem, please check out the following links.

Globe and Mail article by Matthew Hart, July 5th, 2008

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News - 2009

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News - 2008

I understand that the term Scuttlehole was used in pioneer times for the hole that was used to access the attic of the home. Perhaps you had to scuttle (scurry) to get up there. It was also used to refer to the a small hole with a movable lid on the deck or hull of a ship.

A scuttle could also be a metal pan for carrying coals, or a shallow open basket for carrying vegetables, flowers or grain.

The scuttleholes still to be found in our area, though, are none-of-the-above. They are geological formations on the Moira River.

Some details are available on a website I prepared for one of my listings -

http://yourcountryhome.ca/location.htm

The Organic Underground Cafe is closing ... or maybe not.

Our Century 21 Office in Belleville, Ontario is located across the street from a remarkable little cafe called the Organic Underground that was founded by Katharine Davis and her community of like-minded friends about three years ago.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is to use part of the notice that Katharine posted on the Organic Underground website a couple of days ago. It sets out her initial vision for the cafe, one that has been achieved with remarkable success -

"Three years ago this June, I opened the Organic Underground in downtown Belleville.

"From inception, I imagined a space that would exemplify the reality that so many of us want to see in the world.

"This was to be a space where people who live in a common geographic area, would come together – often for the first time, and build a community.

"I imagined a child friendly environment where the sound of a baby crying or children playing would be, not only tolerated, but enjoyed.

"I ordered 'breastfeeding friendly' stickers for the windows and bathroom, gay/lesbian rainbow stickers for the front door. I sourced out environmentally friendly containers and paper products for the cafe. I dreamed of Indie art all over the walls, local musicians and developing bands making use of the small stage.

"I wanted to have a cafe where everybody got to eat and we acknowledged a 'pay what/when you can' system for people who struggled to afford food.

"I imagined street people, and lawyers having lunch in the same place eating the same quality food."

Katherine's note goes on to show the remarkable degree to which that vision has become a reality in this small cafe, then, sadly, it states that the financial end of things has not gone as well. She refers to staff members who have been unpaid since last November, but who have "chosen to volunteer their endless passion to ensure the continuation of the Organic Underground" and acknowledges that "Our insistence on feeding anyone and including every member of our community has cost us financially."

You can read the full story here, for now at least, until the front page article for the cafe website is changed.

So, I wonder what that page will say a week from now. Will this be one more attempt to create a vital community that falters on economic grounds, or is it just possible that enough people will notice and help to make it viable again?

I dropped over to see Katharine a few minutes ago to pick up one of the grilled cheese sandwiches for which CBC radio and television personality Jion Gomeshi is quoted as having said, "A finer grilled cheese will not to be had," and Katharine was smiling. Responses are starting to come in from all over the world, and the TV cameras arrive tomorrow.