From the ruined candy factory

Happy Easter and/or happy spring!
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Happy Easter, if you celebrate it. If not, happy beginning of spring (such as it is). I wanted something a bit cheery here, and it just so happens that on my trip to the Brach's factory yesterday, to commemorate the six months I've been doing the so-called-urban-exploration, I noticed one room had lots of rolls of posters or banners. And this happened to be the one I unfurled. That looks like a knife or something at the bottom, but I didn't bring it.

Yes, it's only been six months at this thrilling but often heartbreaking pursuit that's changed my life in many ways. I first went to Brach's on 9/22/07 with a group of new and seasoned explorers from Flickr, and yesterday was, I think, my sixth trip. Alone, but I kept seeing one or two or three young people running around, and at 5:00, just as I was on my way out, about a dozen of them gathered on top of a tower. Weird. They saw me, but I didn't go over, because I wasn't sure how to ask a big group, "What are you doing here?" But I think they were taggers, not explorers.

I spent the early afternoon at a "new" place I noticed a couple weeks ago--but when I got close I saw the name and realized I'd been told about it before. It's a wonderfully ruined factory, and the sun and the snow covering everything made it even better. I spent mid-afternoon at Brach's, and then went to my ridiculous obsession, Westinghouse, where I ran into some other explorers again, finally. I'm off for a Easter morning visit there now. If you haven't seen my Brach's photos the set is here. A candy factory for Easter, seems somewhat appropriate.