Florida Interlude, South Lido Park
December 18, 2022
South Lido Park has changed since I started going there about 20 years ago. The name, for one, has changed from South Lido Park to South Lido Beach. But the terrain—on Lido Key, a barrier island in Sarasota—has changed, too. Over most of those 20 years, most of the changes were subtle, or came one at a time: a new bridge over a lagoon, removal of the invasive Australian pines, a temporary sand bar. Last month I flew down to Sarasota for a two-week stay. It was my first time there in three years. Some of what used to be water was land; some of what used to be land was water. They seemed like major changes, but maybe that’s because I missed three years of their coming and going. Still, enough was familiar for me to feel “back.” Here’s some of what I saw.
1 Usually I go out with the camera in the morning, but my friend Lynda and I wanted to be there when the tide was lowest, which that day was in late afternoon. I enjoyed the bluish shadows.
2 These funny little spits of sand made a nice addition to the tide lines. Lynda’s guess is that they were formed by a kind of worm.
3 Foliage overhanging the beach dripped water on the sand.
4 Embedded seagrass made calligraphic marks in the sand.
5 A dead Australian pine trunk was speckled. Are insects eating it?
6 This large tree and the much smaller plant are probably not mother and baby, but the cradling makes me think they are.
7 As the sun started to go down, the green leaves of this Virginia creeper shone against the darker surroundings.
8 I have taken photographs of a bazillion seagrape leaves but maybe none of the seagrape fruits—until last month.
9 Leaves of grass . . .
10 My trip to Florida would not have been complete without a photograph of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at Sarasota Bay.
Romancing Reality 