It's the end of the summer, so maybe not the perfect season for a blog post about fun in the front yard - but I just came across this little unposted piece I wrote LAST YEAR (that will give you an indication of what kind of year it's been!).
I was reminded of this work-in-progress story because of a recent Twitter excahnge between Calgary blogger Richard White and former City of Calgary team member Josh White (well, it was a few weeks ago, and I couldn't dig it up when I tried scrolling through old tweets, alas). They were just talking about the oft-forgotten merits of front lawns. Richard also recently posted a new piece along a similar theme, extolling the virtues of the underappreciated front porch.
The original post I'd written last year had been inspired by a piece from Richard White's blog, the ﻿Everyday Tourist﻿, written in the summer of 2015 and entitled "Front Yard Fun???"
But it was not just suburbanites who turned their backs on the street. Many inner city homes with back alley garages also seemingly forgot they have a front yard.
The Everyday Tourist's story really struck a chord with me when I read it back in 2015, since I'd been spending what felt like the whole summer in my tiny front yard. My husband had to spend most of the summer in Edmonton helping his parents move, while, at the same time, my mom ended up spending most of the summer visiting at our house in Ramsay.
This resulted in me having two children to look after mostly on my own, and it also resulted in me needing to find things my mom and my children could do together safely. My mom has Parkinson's and although she can spray a naked grandchild with a garden hose as well as the next person (see above), she has trouble keeping her balance and falls are a constant issue. So a lot of stairs, uneven ground, and open spaces which don't have a lot of railings and walls to hang on to, are not idea places to play.
We were stuck at home a lot, since heading out for playgrounds and playdates isn't always easy when you have a one-year-old and a grandma who both need naps at different times.
But you can't keep two small boys in a house all day, either. All parents, especially those who reside in small houses like mine, are familiar with this predicament: the kids are getting too rowdy and the house just feels crowded and claustrophobic and you just have to get those kids OUTSIDE! In 2015, this happened pretty much every day, and we just fell into the routine of moving everything outside... but not into the backyard, even though it's quite a bit bigger. Instead, we headed for the front yard.
1. The steps from the front porch are much shallower than the steps leading down from our back deck. Better for grandmothers and children both.
2. The sight lines from inside the house are much better than we have to our back yard, which makes it easier for me to head back in... to make lunch, for example... while still keeping an ear and an eye on things.
3. But (and here's the part about front yards in particular): by staying out front, I was also inviting in all the neighbours and passers-by who wouldn't have been part of the story, had we been sitting in our fenced-in back yard.
every day. Often they'd stop to say hi, join in the fun, and even help me keep an eye on things.
4. Also, by staying in the front yard, I was inviting myself to the party that's 23rd Avenue (that's kind of a joke, but when you're stuck inside, even a tiny neighbourhood street inhabited by a few other front-porch-sitters can feel like a party!). When you're spending a lot of time with children, you sometimes crave conversation with other grown-ups, particularly when you're having a challenging summer like the one I was having. In the back yard, I feel more cut off from this kind of opportunity, but in the front yard, it just happens by magic! Random people strolled by, I said hi, and the next thing I knew I was getting free therapy!
Again, I'm kind of joking, but it's kind of true, too. At the risk of wandering too far from "front yard fun," I might as well mention that in the wake of a bunch of family health issues and a new baby, I struggled for almost two years with post-partum depression (I wrote a comic strip about that for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo's 2016 Artbook, which you can see here). For me, this meant that I often couldn't muster the energy to get out the door to the places I knew would cheer me up - visits to friends, places my kids could play happily, etc. But sitting inside with aforementioned rambunctious kids wasn't going to cheer me up, either. That's how the front lawn became an accessible, free and easy solution to my basic need for social support, human interaction, and sunlight. I wrote a comic strip about "How the Playgroup Saved my Life," but maybe I should have called this little essay, "How the Front Yard Saved my Life." The front yard got me through the summer. And it was fun!
When I work at different events this days, I often hear about concepts like "integrated neighbourhoods" and "transit oriented development" - the idea that city planning should consider the big picture, instead of designing for a single isolated purpose. Can good planning have a tangible effect on promoting positive mental health? My experience gives that a resounding yes.
When I bought my house in 2004, the front porch was one of its worst features. Later we added a DIY ramp right on top of the stairs to accommodate my two arthritic senior citizen dogs (comic strip about dogs and ramp from the 2014 Ramsay newsletter, here).
Another challenge with the new porch was that the builders originally replaced the four wide, shallow steps with three steep steps up. I had to ask them to redo the work and recreate the same four steps we'd had before. Having these shallow steps has made a world of difference to the short-legged toddlers and the mobility-challenged grown-ups who have come through our door in the years since.
In the summer of 2014, I built a "train" in the front yard for my 5-year-old train enthusiast (and the baby liked it, too).
Then, in 2015, when my mom was visiting, we built many front-yard forts and mazes with my foamcore posterboards.
These days, I'm more efficient with my work materials (thank goodness) and I don't have to buy dozens of new boards all the time. The downside of this is that we haven't been making as many cool forts like the one shown below.
Chalk drawing on our front path inevitably spills over onto the sidewalk.
And a gorgeous tree like this is just asking you to come right on to the lawn (a few doors down).
And a couple of years back, my brother borrowed our front lawn to stage a yard sale as part of Ramsay's "Parade of Garage Sales." I know that people who love garage sales are undeterred by unwelcoming back alleys, but for the less hard-core browsers, a front yard set-up like this one just invites you in!
I asked my seven-year-old son about any front-lawn-related memories or ideas, and he responded as follows: "Remember that "OLD HOUSE" walk? People were supposed to walk along and say, "Look, an OLD HOUSE!""
The thrilling event he's remembering (with some bemusement as to the big deal involved in gazing at so-called "OLD HOUSES") is Century Homes, a 2012 initiative that encouraged residents of 100-year-old houses in Calgary to celebrate the history of their homes. In 2014, a Jane's Walk along 23rd Avenue featured many of these homes, as seen below. Yay for OLD HOUSES and their old front lawns!
Anyway, when I think about it, a few of our pop-up events really depended on front lawns.
An audience taking in poetry readings by Rosemary Griebel and Kris Demeanour on front porches at the New Street Spoken Word Safari.
Front lawns were decorated with DIY "chandeliers" for our wintertime Chandelierville walking tour.
But my favourite front- yard story has to be the story of another find it pop-up event, the 23rd Avenue Artwalk and Street Celebration.
What I really like about the picture above is that the little rectangle of grass in the middle is actually shared by two neighbours, and their display shares the space - the glassblowers' table on one side, Andrew Tarrant's ceramics tent on the other. And yet there isn't any big physical divider between them. It just looks like one big show.
Here are a few more pictures of the ways we took advantage of our front yards that day.
And one last note as I look through the front-yard-related pictures I collected last year in my attempt to write this post, back then: a little comic about the connections that can manifest if you just happen to be in your front yard.
I know the weather's getting colder and you may not feel like putting out the lawn chairs just now... but keep it in mind and try it whenever you feel inspired. And if you're strolling by and you see me on the front lawn, please say hi and share your own front lawn story.