A field guide to Ontario's forgotten places, weird destinations, folklore, legends, and curious history.
What happened to Alan L. Brown who ran the websites for OntarioPlaques and TorontoPlaques? http://www.ontarioplaques.com/ and http://torontoplaques.com/
He has disappeared and the sites are gone. He had other sites, intended for school children mainly, and the two sites about historical plaques in Ontario. (First Ontario and then another site to focus on Toronto). But all gone now.… Read the rest
These images are from the Realtor (real estate site). I have taken photos of the Owen Sound Court House before, but only the outside. Now it is for sale. Priced to sell, low, because it needs a fortune spent on it. If you look at the listing (while the link is still there) you can see the rotting wood from water damage in the roof.… Read the rest
First, I found his site, Ontario Exploration 101, via the Curlie listing which had come up as a broken link to check. The link works, if you go past the web browser warnings of gloom and doom. People may miss all his posts because they start from the navigation bar, under the word “more…”. Not the navigation people are used to.… Read the rest
Somehow I often catch people at a crossroads in their life. This time Jerm IX, Jeremy Bertrand, is evolving from his old persona and into something else. Leaving much of the old Jerm IX behind. I found his note about this on his Facebook account, the day after he posted it.
I haven’t especially tried to find him before this.… Read the rest
Not fair to say it was lost. I noticed a white cow at the shed to the side. It didn’t stay long, not shy, just not that interested. The farm house is like many others you can find in rural Ontario. But, pretty sure no one still lives in this one. There was a small rusted sign along the side of the driveway, but nothing I could still read on it.… Read the rest
Pat doesn’t live here but his animals do. He was working at the back when I found the old house. He invited me to take all the photos I liked, but he doesn’t want people bothering the animals when he isn’t there. The old house is home to goats, turkeys, chickens and ducks.
I found this description on a site, Worksongs (now 404) by Andrew Emond.
I had just been talking to my nephew yesterday about that feeling of talking photographs without looking at every detail not relevant to the photograph. While I’m photographing, my mind goes into a different place. I’m seeing everything as light, shadow, angles, clear versus blurred, and so on.… Read the rest
Few people haven’t heard and considered an opinion about the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland. So far there isn’t any concrete evidence, not enough that I fully believe there is something in that very deep lake. But, I don’t not believe either. After all, why couldn’t there be something not yet found or not yet proved.… Read the rest
One of my photos was included in an article about abandoned houses, on a site called Art & Home.
They added it from Pinterest, known for being a great source of photographs (I’m joking). So there is no attribute or link to me.
It bugs me that I don’t seem to have my original image file for this photo (and most of the others from this house) any more.… Read the rest
I remember the original website, which you can still see (the front page and not much else) with the Wayback Machine. I could not find an update about Bruce Brigham and both of his web domains abandonedontario.ca and abandonedontario.com are parked/ 404 now. Not a good sign. I exchanged an email with him, once, long ago.… Read the rest