Quinte, ON

One of the simpler summer time pleasures in Quinte is taking advantage of the many local fruit and vegetable stands that seem to pop up all over the place.

It usually starts with the strawberries, and as the summer wears on they will be selling other goodies until pumpkin season arrives. I don't like pumpkins, by the time they are in the vegetable stands summer will be long over.

Until then though, I get to enjoy cucumbers, brocoli, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, blueberries, potatoes, and lots of other locally grown produce.

My favourite is the corn. No question. There are several varieties that are grown locally, and they are all delicious. I love picking through the corn bin and selecting the ears that are just right. A lot of people just pick the biggest ones, thinking that they are getting the best value. This isn't necessarily true, but many people just seem to have a mantra "bigger is better".

We are nowhere near corn season yet, but I can see the corn starting to get bigger in the fields, and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into some local peaches and cream corn. At about $4 a dozen, it's really difficult to go wrong.

Between now and then, I'll be enjoying some of the other products that are brought in from the fields of Prince Edward County and the Quinte region. When the corn comes in, I'll be sure to write a post about that.

Thank You Justin Bieber.

You are an inspiration to all of us.

"Find out what's possible if you never give up". That's a great motto, and coming from someone like you makes it extra special. We can all relate to the long hard struggle your life must have been before your debut album charted at #1 and made you an international recording star and multi millionaire at the age of 15.

It must have been a tough 14 years prior to that, especially in light of the fact that your childhood was spent in the hardscrabble town of Stratford, Ontario - home of the Shakespeare Festival. Stratford, located on the banks of the Avon River, is where they release 24 white swans and two black swans into the river in a symbolic gesture of whatever the hell that's supposed to symbolise. Childhood could not have been easy in an upscale middle-sized town in southern Ontario. Is this where you learned to sieze the day and milk life for what it's worth?

"Never say Never". Thanks to you, I won't. I will refuse to say never.

Nelson Mandella, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, step aside. The world has thrust yet another example of persistence, determination and a drive to succeed in the face of enormous adversity among us. Like the aforementioned three examples, Justin is showing us that years of hard work and dedication to an outcome can pay dividends for humanity in general. To ignore personal suffering in pursuit of a higher goal is something that most people might struggle with, but using Justin Bieber as an example, we can all learn how to persist.

Don't give up Justin. Find out what's possible.

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about a dog named Willy. His owners were downsizing and moving to an apartment, and even though it broke their hearts, they knew that it was best if Willy found a new home.

We did manage to find Willy suitable accomodations, thanks to someone who read my blog post. - That should be a lesson to those of you who wonder about the effectiveness of blogging.

Well today I'm making a similar appeal. One of my clients has an old farm dog who can longer be at her side as she journies on to the next stage of her life.

Old Max.

Whenever I drive my car up the long driveway, the first being that greets me is Max. He lopes (about as gracefully as a rather rotund old fellow can manage) alongside my car the whole way. Boy oh boy is he ever excited to see me. He can't contain himself as I'm gathering my things in the car, he moves about in a circle chasing his tail until I open the door and step out. I suspect he does this to everybody though.

Of course I have to spend the first five minutes greeting the old guy and playing with him for a while. A welcome like that can't be ignored, it must be returned in kind. Once I have paid an adequate amount of attention to him, he will happily wander off and go about his own business. If only the greeters at Walmart were so happy to see me.

Unfortunately Max will probably need a large property to wander about in what will probably be the last year or two of his life, so it will have to be a rather special new home. Max has been a farm dog his whole life. Winter and Summer he prefers to be outside. As you can see by the picture, he's not a show dog with any kind of pedigree. Max is just a friendly old soul who will soon need a new home. Give me a call if you can think of one.

Ladies, ladies, ladies, I read a lot of real estate blogs and articles and a recurring theme seems to be (gasp) the horror of "mancaves". I know a lot of you crinkle your noses at the very idea of a mancave existing in a house that you are trying to sell. There are countless articles on how to transform them into something that's more appealing.

In this blog post I'm going to strike a blow for equality. Yes, men are human beings too.

See this picture of a bathroom on your left? This pink creation that vaguely resembles a five year old girl's birthday cake.

What the hell is this? Who on earth needs a carpet on their toilet? This is obviously not something that a man designed.

I am going to let the ladies who are reading this in on a little secret that every man knows but few will admit. When adorned with a fuzzy little carpet, the toilet lid does not stay up very well. Do you ladies realize what this means? Do you realize how difficult it is to hold the lid up with one knee while trying to urinate accurately? I can't count the number of times when I have been innocently going about my business and the lid has come crashing down.

I will say though, one redeeming factor about the toilet lid-carpet is that it's made of very absorbent material, and usually can handle anything that's thrown at it. An extra bonus is that the little rug lying at the bottom of the toilet can also be used to help clean up any additional mess that may have been created. Oh yeah, crinkle your nose now.

Please, get rid of these stupid things, and while you're at it, the potpourri can go too. I hear hardwood is all the rage these days. If you must decorate the top of your toilet, get someone in to install some hardwood then, otherwise leave the blooming things alone.

Many teachers have been reluctant to use Facebook. The reasons for this are pretty obvious. If I were a teacher, I wouldn't want my students to know a lot of the personal details of my life (and I probably wouldn't want to know too much about theirs). Being in contact with students through a platform like Facebook could become uncomfortable for many teachers. With Facebook's atrocious record for dealing with issues of privacy many teachers refuse to sign up for an account in the first place.

A new internet venture called Teachbook has been launched for teachers. Not only is it a bit of a social network, it's also a place where teachers can share resources, lessons and many other things that could be helpful to the teaching profession. It is simply an online community for teachers, similar to many online communities that other professions have. Seems like a pretty logical thing for teachers to have in my books.

Facebook doesn't like this new venture. According to a CNN article Facebook is taking this new venture to court. Read the lawsuit here. (It's a PDF File).

Apparently Facebook objects to the new venture's use of the word "book" in their name. Since when did Facebook own the word "book"? They are alleging that Teachbook is trying to ride on their coattails. Facebook just passed the 500 million user mark (an incredible 1 in 7 people on this planet have an account), and are a universally recognized name, but does this give them the authority to prohibit others from using the word "Book" in their names? I wouldn't think that it should. After all, the word book did precede Facebook by a couple of years or so.

I think Facebook have become too big for their britches and that this is a pretty clear case of bullying.