Posts tagged with “Canada”
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Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada

"The SSAC is a registered charitable organization founded in 1974 by a broadly-based group of people interested in encouraging a greater understanding and development of the study of Canadian architecture. Included in this study is an examination of both historical and cultural issues relating to buildings, streetscapes, cities, and the countryside."

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What is an Abandoned Barn Versus Inactive?

I looked at the photos of barns in this post. To me, most of them are inactive, not actually abandoned. They are still maintained, enough to not be falling down, don't look salvaged for barn boards, etc. So, they didn't really seem abandoned or derelict. Probably someone else would consider any barn not actively used to be abandoned. I guess it is all perspective. Are you someone using a barn or someone photographing it, looking at it for history, art, or industry/ agriculture or architecture?

I have not (so far) found a link to the photographer, John H. Busch or his fellow explorer, Mary Lynn Busch. There are good points in the post about exploring, history and photographing old places in Ontario. I've copied and pasted parts of the post, not in order so I can keep topics, like photographing the barns together.

Tips for Photographing Abandoned Barns

It’s interesting how you can photograph the same subject several times in one day and capture a different result each time, depending on the location of the sun, cloud cover, and location of the point of view. I learned through experience that my best colour photos are taken on cloudy days, but it is hard to exclude sunny-day shadows for good contrast.

I have shot and compiled a selection of these abandoned barns. For various reasons, it’s sometimes difficult to get the proper perspective while photographing these structures. Some are set far back from the road; there is often the presence of trees and foliage; and sometimes the time of day isn’t ideal. I believe some of my best photos of these barns were taken during the winter months, due to the absence of foliage, but ironically some of the best colours were during the summer months. Most of the barns are plain and unpainted, but a few are painted “barn red” while the odd one is white or green.

The Beginning of the End

The barns with missing boards or ones that have had part of their metal roofs blown off are the ones I refer to as doomed. Once this process begins, the barn will collapse relatively quickly. A year or two of rain on the dry hardwood beams, coupled with an entry for the wind to blow through, often speeds up the process. Gravity always seems to win in the end.

Another factor that contributes to the disappearance of these old barns is economics, including property taxes. Once the landowner realizes that the barn, which is often completely empty, is costing extra money in tax assessment, an excavator is brought in and the barn is dismantled quickly, often leaving the original farmhouse as the only building on the property.

To this day, terms such as “top plate, girt, corner post, brace, bent, mortise and tenon” still come to mind whenever I see different barns.

Source: Readers Digest: Abandoned Barns of Southwestern Ontario | Our Canada

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Possibly the Weirdest Looking Tree in Ontario

This is called a dawn redwood tree. In 2015, it was voted as the most unique tree in the Great Toronto Tree Hunt. Unfortunately this is now 404 on the site and I could not find the photographs of the winning, or nominated trees. This is a very strange looking tree. I hope it is still standing and lasts a very long time.

This type of tree has been around from the ages of dinosaurs and it can grow in zone 5 but likes lots of sun and water. I looked for more photographs of this tree. Not all were as red as this. It might depend on the lighting at the time the photograph was taken, or the conditions may have been just right for it where this tree is planted.

Interested in growing one in Ontario? I found a post about growing dawn redwoods, a variety called gold rush, for Ontario gardeners at Canada's Local Gardener magazine: Dawn Redwood.

Near the Children’s Centre and Teaching Garden sits a massive and rare find – a dawn redwood (aka metasequoia), believed to be one of the oldest deciduous conifers in Toronto. It was a winner in the uniqueness category of LEAF’s Great Toronto Tree Hunt, submitted by author Jason Ramsay-Brown. It’s said to have been planted in 1960 on a plot bathed in early-morning sunlight on June 20 each year – the birthday of the wife of the gardener who planted it.

Source: Hidden Toronto: a growing list of the city's best-kept secrets

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Old Ned - Cryptid in New Brunswick

Old Ned Lake Utopia, New Brunswick

“Apparently there’s a monster in that lake. ‘Old Ned,’ they call him, and sightings go back into local indigenous folklore. My grandfather claimed to have seen it as a boy, serpent-like and scaly and swimming very quickly across the lake. You can well imagine that hearing that story, the imagination of six-year-old me latched in to what that must have been like for my grandfather’s 10-year-old self back in the 1920s!” — yodaddeo

Source: 24 Extremely Local Cryptids You've Probably Never Heard Of - Atlas Obscura

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A History of the Postcard in Canada

On June 1, 1871, Canada issued a prestamped, pictureless post card. It was called a postal stationery card and was sold for one cent at the post office. The cost included both the card and the delivery to any address within the Dominion. According to the 1871 Department Order No. 7 which authorized the government printed post card "The front or stamped side of the card is to be used for the address only, There must be nothing else either written or printed upon it." and "On the other or reverse side, any communication whether of the nature of a letter or otherwise, may be written or printed."

Postal Stationery Cards were used for business purposes to make appointments, confirm orders and arrange deliveries.

On December 9, 1897 the Post Office announced that "designs, illustrations, portraits, sketches or other forms of advertisement may be engraved, lithographed, printed, etc., on the 'address' side of the one-cent Post Card."

The Private Mailing Card: 1898 marked the end of the Pioneer Era and the beginning of the Private Mailing Card (PMC). Again, only the address was allowed to be written on the stamp side, and space was left around the image for any message from the sender.

Also found on many post cards was "Postal Card - Carte Postale" which indicated it was allowed to enter the international mail system.

The Divided Back: In December 1903 one of the most important changes in Canadian post card history occurred. The Official Postal Guide announced "The department has authorized...that a space may be reserved for communication on the face of the cards to the left of the address.... This space must be marked off from the address section by a vertical line..."

A Brief History of the Post Card