urbex || the incinerator

I'm always late to the party, mainly because I don't know the party exists at first! I had never heard of urban exploration until recently, but it tickled a fancy I had apparently been harbouring all along. Niesho was just as interested, and together we decided to check out an abandoned incinerator!

The incinerator. There was a lot of graffiti, obviously. Some of it was thought-provoking: And some of it, not so much: Some of the art was simple: And some of it was more complex, or colourful, or just well-blended: Sadly, a lot of the nicer pieces had been painted over: You jelly of someone's artistic abilities, cuz? My photography, as evidenced by these photos, leaves a lot to be desired (that's okay, I'm still learning!). You can barely see the giant owl on the far wall here: It must have been quite lovely before someone scribbled all over its face. I stuck my head in the oven on the left on a whim, and found this inside: Perhaps a farewell to Selena? That was only nineteen years ago, after all, and this building has obviously been abandoned at least that long.

Interestingly enough, we weren't the only people there! There was a (small) professional photo shoot going on, as we suspected when we saw the clothes hanging up outside: I hope they don't mind that I snuck a pic of the model's feet! It was such an amazing trip. There was a piece of machinery in there that was actually still going! I tried to take a video buuuuuut my camera wasn't cooperating (read: I couldn't figure out how). Briefly considered climbing up here until I remembered I'm scared of dying: Peephole to the floor below: There was a lot of broken glass outside (hardly surprising), but there was a fair amount of broken ceramic/pottery, too: We saw a bunch of these weird balls everywhere: They were some kind of dried fruit... I wonder what they were! Stealth shot of Niesho: "You're not taking a picture of me, are you?" We had an absolute blast, and agreed we had to do it again sometime! The photographer from the photo shoot actually suggested a place nearby when he learned we were just there to check out the building/graffiti/etc, so this definitely isn't the last set of urbex photos that will appear on this blog, hahah.

If there's one thing I learned from this trip, it's that I apparently can't hold my camera straight to save my life! I ought to have brought my tripod, anyway, but I'll try to be more aware of that in the future.

Hope you're having adventures of your own!
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nature &whatnot || Chisholm Trail

Josh and I went for a walk the other day. According to Kevin Hart, you have to be pretty fucking happy to just go out for a walk. What can I say, it was a nice day! Right away we saw a bunch of squirrels. Bouncing away when I approached. This little guy let me get pretty darn close! Eventually this one, too, fled, only to peek out at us from behind a tree! So cute~ Near one of the little bridges spanning Spring Creek was a tree that looked like it's been falling downhill very slowly over a number of years, hahah. It seems to have a pretty decent grip on another tree near it, so perhaps it's done falling, after all. It also has a pretty good grip on the ground, actually! hahah Down by the creek. He doesn't normally look this grumpy (; It's a pretty little creek... aside from all the trash. Maybe next time I'll bring a bag and a trash-poker (or whatever those are called, hahah). I nearly missed this little guy; Josh pointed it out to me. It looks like the back half of something, but beyond that I have no idea! I have never attempted to identify mummified animal carcasses before, to be quite honest. Josh finally dragged me away, and we continued on our walk. Josh and I agreed that these steps looked a little down. This stump was so big! All the other stumps around were painted bright pink, presumably for the city workers who mow the grass, but this one wasn't, because really, how could you miss it?? I wish I could have seen it when it was still a tree. There were mushrooms growing at the base! I seriously know basically nothing about mushrooms. I'm seriously not even going to attempt to identify it, because I have no clue! I would have collected one or two to take home for examination but I didn't have anything to carry them in. Maybe next time I'll be more prepared! You guys, this is someone's backyard. For reals. I am sooooooo jealous. I hope they didn't mind me taking pictures of the back of their house! hahah This was across from the yard. Looks like someone's been sliding down it! I wanted to try but Josh was like "no." and also I had nothing to slide on except my legging-clad butt, which would have hurt. This is the underside of one of the major streets the trail passes under. I have a secret to confess! A few days later, I went back with gloves and a jar and retrieved those mysterious back limbs near the leaning tree. They've been macerating for a while, and I am excited/nervous to attempt to reassemble/identify the critter! For all I know identification will be impossible with how much of the little guy was missing- plus, this is my first time trying anything like this, so I could easily fuck it up... Wish me luck!
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