Inspired by my recent discovery of the blog Sad Stuff on the Street, I asked local photographer Scott Snider if he had any photos of lost or forsaken items relegated to Toronto streets, parks and/or front lawns. Lo and behold he did — and a lot of them. So the following is a collection of some of the more interesting ones that he agreed to share here. We both decided that it'd be a good idea to loosen the "sad" theme up a bit in order to include some more quirky stuff that should be worth a smile or two.

It's tough to explain exactly what makes photos of this type so oddly compelling, but if I had to venture a guess, it'd be because they hint at a narrative but don't deliver any details. You stumble across this thing on the street — which can be alternately funny, sad, or just plain odd — but it's impossible to know where it came from and how it got there. The compulsion to dream up a story is almost irresistible. As such, if you have any creative explanations for the scenes below, we'd love hear them in the comments section.

Poor Little Mitten

Un-Clued

Freed Spirit

Childhood's End

Smile and the World Smiles With You

Giraffe Intersection

Castaway

Eastern Gerrard Sidewinder

House and Garden Layout

National Portrait Gallery

Game Theory

Multiverse Revealed

E Is for Enigmatic

Summer's End

If you have photos of sad or quirky stuff you've found on the street, send them to the blogTO Flickr pool with the tag #streetstuff. And to see more of Scott Snider's curbside discoveries, check out the whole set here or watch the slideshow below.