Bitterly Cold and Windy at the Kinghorn Cemetery

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It was biting, bitterly, cold and windy at this little cemetery, called the Kinghorn Cemetery. Located north of Toronto. I like the gravestones with flowers, or something else unique and pretty but not especially religious. This cemetery seemed to have more stone flowers than most, considering the small size of the place.

Little Angel in the Corner at the Union Loyalist Cemetery

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I visited here a few years ago but the gate was locked. This time it was open so I went inside and photographed every gravestone, details of the engraving and sculpture and all around the angel in the back corner. This is located in Burlington and cared for by the city. It isn’t hard to find but likely gets missed by people driving by. It is being crowded out by valuable shopping mall real estate, but it is still there.

Stone House Not Long for this World

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A house on a hill. I think this was along Jane Street if you travel long enough north of Toronto. I haven’t been keeping track. Not remembering where places are is the best way to not share location information and see the old places vandalized. This one will be torn down at some point. The real estate is too desired for an old ruin to be left alone for long.

Access is not strongly blocked. Enough to give the message that this is not for the public to wander in. So I stayed on the public side of things and took photographs from the road and the bottom of the hill. Others have likely gone farther and explored inside. It doesn’t seem respectful when there is a pretty fresh lock on the gate.

Viewed from the Road

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This house I only photographed from the road. The access to it was on private property, not abandoned at all. I’m kind of shy and like many people this past year, I’ve been feeling less than social and exuberant at the idea of being friendly. So I didn’t take photographs from the driveway at the house of the property owner. The stone houses are still my favourites. I like this photo, kind of spoiled by focusing on the tree, but more interesting to leave something of mystery, not yet seen. Of course, I did take better photos. This is the the I like best for posting.

The Oldest Store in Town

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This is not open now, as so many small and local businesses are shut down. But, they were selling coffee. The building needs some TLC but it isn’t abandoned. I like the old stops along main streets in small (very small in this case) towns. One thing I noticed here were the birdhouses nailed up on the roof (I’m sure there is a correct word for that part of the building, I just don’t know it). Who made the birdhouses, who put them up there, and did birds ever live in them?

Lost Farm House

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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. I liked being out in the early Spring, after the snow had melted. You wouldn’t know whether it was Spring or Fall, without some sign of green coming or going.

The Animal Farm House

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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.

The Camera as a Divining Rod

            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. I don’t catch the words on a gravestone but I see that they will (or won’t) turn out clearly enough to read in the photograph. I walk around to find the angle that catches the mood, without taking the time to decide what the mood actually is. At least not in words.

It is a different connection to your surroundings when you look at everything a little distanced and yet more connected in other ways. I liked the analogy of the camera as a divining rod. So I have reposted Andrew’s description, as a quote. He has another site: Andrew Emond.

Worksongs Photography

Name : Andrew Emond
Location : Toronto / Montreal

Intent : Worksongs is basically the end result of me trying to gain a better, more direct connection with my immediate surroundings. I look at the camera as a sort of divining rod. It helps lead me to things I wouldn’t normally consider examining or give much thought to, like industrial processes or the way communities are evolving. I’m particularly interested in how elements of the old world are fitting in with the modern world, or in some cases aren’t fitting in at all — essentially where our society has come from and the directions we might be headed.

Art & Home Reposted the Old House from Bradford

            <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-56414" src="https://ontarioexploration.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/foundonartandhomenet.png" alt="" width="382" height="442" />One of my photos was included in an article about abandoned houses, on a site called <a href="https://artandhome.net/abandoned-homes/">Art &amp; Home</a>.

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. Every image I have is shrunken, smaller than my original. I shrunk them for posting online and maybe the big originals were lost somewhere along the way. I keep hoping I will turn them up.

As far as the Pinterest thing, what can you do? There’s a lot of theft online, intentional and unintentional. Easier to just post the image than backtrack it to the source. Even if you find a source, how can you know it is the right source. Things are pretty messed up. This is why I am working on watermarking images before I post any more of them. Where ever they wander, at least there will be something to show where they came from. In theory.

Want to find this house? You won’t. It was demolished years ago. Bradford, Ontario.

Bruce Brigham Abandoned Ontario Books

            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.

I did find one of his photos posted to Pinterest. There is also a surviving link for a few pages and photographs on Tumblr. No new posts. I found another lost link which had posts about his books, pinball machines and working with Mac computers. But that domain was sold and is being using by another business now. I also found a pinball video, about collecting and maintaining the old pinball games.

There are also two books, which are very hard (which probably means expensive too) to find. Both are listed on Amazon but not available. I found a photo of the second book via ebay.