my friend erica and I spent memorial day weekend on fire island, a small island off the coast of long island. my mom has had a little house there for years, and it's my favorite place. a long time ago someone introduced bamboo to the island, and now the entire place is covered with bamboo. it makes fire island look like an exotic, tropical island, when in reality it's only an hour or so from new york city.
on the ferry ride
me, taken by erica
our house, "the surf shack"
erica photographing
photogenic stranger
stray cat
my mom on the porch
my mom's boyfriend joe in the garden
mom & fresh radishes from the garden
me, by erica
3 am, mystery light shining through the window
tiny strawberries from the garden
made some lil friends on the beach
salad fresh from the garden
fire island is home to friendly deer that come right up to you
ferry ride home
waiting for the train back to the city, sunburnt and happy
such beautiful images! <3 miss ya guyz!
ReplyDeletefantastic photos!
ReplyDeletei love the story this tells. pictures #15, #16, #18, #19, #21, and #33 are my favorites. fire island looks fascinating.
ReplyDeletewoahhh so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHello ! I really like the spirit of your pictures ! This is totally the kind of pics I'd like to do (or the spirit at least I try :D) come by my blog if you want :)
ReplyDeleteThat bamboo you noticed is probably the most destructive invasive species ever to be brought to Fire Island. It spreading and complete overwhelming takeover of the beach is an inevitable outcome. It's spread is an irreversiblely cerrtain demise of every other plant species and establishing a sterile monoculture of bamboo forest for the entire length of Fire Island. Nothing grows where the bamboo does. Eventually every other plant species will be crowded out.
ReplyDeleteUntil then some unwitting admirer of the bamboo growing all over the Fire Island walks decides to dig up a small one to plant in their mainland Long Island back yard. That Fatal mistake will be the end of our diverse ecosystem on Long Island. The sandy soils of Long Island are the ideal environment for the invasive growth of bamboo.
Within thirty years the only vegetation on Fire Island will be bamboo. And in a century it will be the monster that ate Long Island. The only possible defense could be by letting loose massive herds of Panda Bears and we all know how that will never happen.
There is only one defense now against the relentless onslaught of the bamboo. That is to trench out the uninfected areas with a barrier set three or better for feet deep against the underground spread of it's root rhizomes from which the e plants will grow. Under ideal conditions like Fire and Long Islands, it can spread over 25' a year.
Make no mistake, this is an existential war of survival between species of plants that will affect the future life of our world as we now know it.