Backyard Exploring

There are 32 posts filed in Backyard Exploring (this is page 3 of 4).

Street Furniture

It may not be an official name, but street furniture is a good name for all the items and objects which make up a city street. Do you notice the:

  • street signs
  • street lights
  • traffic barriers
  • traffic lights
  • mail boxes
  • hand rails
  • bus stops
  • phone booths
  • cigarette receptacles
  • fire hydrants
  • garbage cans
  • benches
  • bicycle racks
  • parking meters
  • sidewalks

and so many other small, old and taken for granted parts of the city streets? What can you find in your own area which has been around awhile and gone unnoticed?

The first telephone boxes, a porter’s rest from 1861 or a street lamp powered by sewage – just a few of the things we can walk past every day in London without often noticing them. Have you ever noticed the smallest Listed structures in London, the K2 phone boxes?

secret-london.co.uksecret-london.co.uksecret-london.co.uk

Source: SECRET LONDON / Trivia / Street_Furniture

Photographing the Obsolete as it Happens

What could you find to photograph for history? Typewriters, wrist watches, maps on paper… so many things which have been made old fashioned, and obsolete. I miss the mechanical things like the old phones, watches and a compass. Inventions which were treasured while their time lasted.

The Obsolescence Project. 2013 – Ongoing.

Initially begun as a 30 day photographic blog project, it became a 365 day blog documenting things that are obsolete or about to be, about the nature of obsolescence and occasionally a modest and brief history of stuff.

Source: The Obsolescence Project – Photography by Deanne Achong

What’s Lost in Your Backyard?

I read this post (link follows) about items found by people at their own homes. Some of them dug something up. Some of them found something lost and forgotten and some just got lucky. In every case people took an interest and explored.

An explorer should not neglect their own backyard.

If you found something would you hope it was valuable, mysterious or historical? Would you feel a bit let down without a mix of all of those? I would!

While digging up their backyard, looking for worms to take on an upcoming fishing trip, two sisters from Kitchener, Canada stumbled upon a curious object. Deep in the ground, they found something transparent and shiny, with a bluish hue. At first they thought that it was part of a meteorite, however, earth sciences professor Phil McCausland disagreed, saying that the visible layer of the object should have been much darker if it really was part of a meteorite. Then, a gem expert, Gary Winkler, was contacted and asked to analyze the object. He found that it was definitely not a gem of any known kind. He also speculated that the object was not of natural origins but that a person deliberately buried it. No matter what it was, the sisters were going to keep it.

  • gold coins
  • a machine gun
  • church bell
  • ancient stone
  • forgotten graves
  • fossils
  • lost loot
  • cursed objects
  • rocks from outer space
  • unexploded bombs
  • jewellery
  • mysterious objects
  • forgotten shelters
  • drugs
  • cars

Source: 25 Unusual Things You Won’t Believe Were Found In A Backyard

Exploring Street Signs

Do you notice street signs? I do.

Likely there are the option to buy old street signs, when they are decommissioned in your area too. That would be an easier, and legitimate way to get them. Any well known streets would be expensive. You could get lucky and find the street you lived on for a bargain price.

I wonder if anyone has collected the same street name in every vintage style? That would be an interesting collection. Possibly a small collection in a small town or a very large collection in the big cities where signs are changed out often for this or that reason.

The “acorn” street-name sign is as much a Toronto icon as are City Hall or the CN Tower. Though the design has graced the streets of many municipalities across Ontario and elsewhere for nearly 70 years, it’s thoughts of our city that it conjures up for many people. Its versatility allowed neighbourhoods and business improvement […]

Source: A Short History of Toronto’s Street Signs | cityscape | Torontoist

The Association of Graveyard Rabbits

The main site for The Association of Graveyard Rabbits hasn’t been kept updated but I found Canadian members.  Not all active but at least the lights are still on (or the sites are still loading). I’d be glad to list more Canadian members if one comes along.graveyardrabbits

The Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia, Canada – M. Diane Rogers

Rock of Ages: Grave Concerns (The Graveyard Rabbit of Alberta)

My Grave Addiction (Ontario)

Graveyard Rabbit of Grey County, Ontario – Janet Iles

Roadside Memorials

Explore your own local area along the roadside. Don’t be an idiot with traffic but, when you can, pull over and take a better look at the roadside memorials. What can you find out about them? If you get a name it shouldn’t be too hard to track down the news story online.  You could have your own backyard urban/ rural exploration project.

An ongoing photography project documenting the many Roadside Memorials found along the backroads and highways. Ontario Roadside Memorial Tributes.

Source: Roadside Memorials | Ontario | Freaktography |

Rusting Street Signs

Train your eye to pay attention to broken bricks, peeling paint, untamed gardens, rusty metal… What can you find on your own?

rustysignsSource: Thomas Muther Jr.

I’ve been thinking about exploring our local area. People want to jump into urban exploration. People ask for locations of abandoned sites so they can skip the steps of exploring and finding anything on their own. That’s not urban exploring. Skipping the adventure and waving a photograph to prove you were there… is bland.

I think you can start exploring in your own town, right in your own neighbourhood. Look for old, derelict, ruined and interesting things. Look for history in man made objects. Think about simple things taken for granted, like street signs, mail boxes, doorbells, milestones, and so on.

An Ode to the Milestone

The milestone. That round white concrete thing squatting next to the road. A remnant of a bygone era, the pre-signpost era, the era of coach and rider. If the milestone does have a function, hardly anyone these days knows what it is. Should you see the stone to your left, it tells you how far you are from the last town. One on the right tells you how far away the next town is. The milestone – or kilometer stone – still has a function!

Source: An ode to the milestone | Travels with Pierneef