Camping on the North Carolina coast in my vintage camper home and harvesting Yaupon Holly

In early April, I went camping with my sweetie at the North Carolina coast. We needed to get off of my parents' farm, as they are hard to be around, and we ended up at their place all winter, unfortunately. The trip was healing, but the weather a mix of sunny days and cooler weather.

Growing up I always came to the shore, and explored the wild dunes and sound side forests.

The Outer Banks are a little thin chain of islands. You can practically throw a rock from one side to the other, sometimes as you're driving on the island, you see the inland 'sound' and wetlands, salt water marsh on one side and the ocean on another.

Global warming has definitely shrunk the islands, and I imagine they may not be around in 100 years. There a big wildlife preserve on the islands, but north of that is a lot of touristy shops and every bit of land is covered in vacation homes or buildings.

It's sad really that it is allowed to be developed as such. But I love to photograph the natural beauty of the landscape, the bits allows to be 'wild' and self-willed. The shifting sand dunes, the moving plants, the wild ocean.

We harvested Yaupon Holly for tea, is is a native plant closely related to Yerba Mate, and our only wild caffiene in North America. We just gathered the leaves to dry for tea.

It has a different kind of feeling to the tea, a different 'buzz' as one would say. It has a lot of minerals as well. The Yaupon is tucked into the Oak forests just shy from the sand dunes and salt spray.

These forests also have Bay Laurel and Saw Palmetto, and many plants are ancient. We had to be careful of ticks though, in some areas they crawled all over us.

The ocean is always healing, and reminds me of how small I am, and the vastness of existence itself and the pool of life I am connected to. I studied Buddhism and eastern spirituality in college, and I always felt as though the ocean was the perfect reminder of 'one and many' and single self but also unified.

I hope to make it back again before the end of the summer.