Shelllady

Shelllady

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Goodbye 2013!!

Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year's resolutions, and I've stuck with it ever since.  ~Dave Beard

We finished this year with a very pleasant day on the beach....I would never complain of it being too cool at 63 degrees in January!! It was a very nice way to end the year! We didn't have great luck shelling, but are grateful to be able to be here and grab a little bit of year end beach therapy in the process. We were greeted early by a dolphin, I didn't get the camera soon enough to catch a shot with him right up at the shore.....he was just having an early breakfast!

 This guy was having a leisurely breakfast also!



Don't you just feel warmer with this pretty sunrise??
Our finds for the day!
Hubby's finds
Hubby found a beautiful true tulip and banded tulip
I found a double spiny jewelbox 
...and some miniature horse conchs!
....also some small sand dollars, a tiny sea urchin still intact and an interesting sponge
I'm really surprised this guy made it all the way home...it's so tiny, but so perfect!! I believe it is a dove shell...so tiny...only 1/8"!!


I found this Alternate Tellin first thing, I had never found one before! It looks like the coquinas on steroids....and it was perfect.
Look how much bigger it is than the coquina, it's shell is nearly transparent!
I also saw this in the sand.....do you recognize what it is?

One of my favorites....a Horse Conch, also called a Florida Conch.....it's not perfect like the one I found in early December, but I'll take it!
I also found these small pretties....My mind is already working about what to do with these little guys!
Tiny sea urchin
Dosinias
I hope all of you and your families have a safe and happy New Year's eve, and that 2014 wakes you up tomorrow with new hope for a special 2014!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Monday, December 30, 2013

A Belated Merry Christmas...it "FITS"

Keep your Christmas-heart open all the year round.  ~Jessica Archmint

I just realized that I had not posted a Merry Christmas to all of my blogger buddies and I am ashamed!! The last few Christmases in our family have changed dramatically and with those changes come adjustments and lately they have used most of my time!! I do apologize!! Let me wish you a Happy New Year early and please know that I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2014 will find you and your families well and happy!!

As I mentioned earlier, our Christmases lately are different, very little family traditions are the same and we are constantly scurrying around trying to adjust and possibly begin new traditions.  Our families gave us wonderful gifts for our new place in Florida, so we decided to take them down and see if they "fit" at our new house!! :)



These are our Grandbabies in New York City, and they sent this BEAUTIFUL picture framed in Abalone Shells that 'fits 'perfectly on our new shell table!!
A Closer view of Hailey, Chloe, Ava and Dylan!!
They also sent us this Beautiful candle that matches the color perfectly, and it "Fits" on the other matching table!
...and these AWESOME teal cracked glass wine glasses that "Fit" nicely in our glass front/back cabinets and continue the perfect color scheme!


Our Sister in law, Maxine gave us this Awesome candle with Seahorses and Shells "Fits" very nicely on our table next to our picture windows.
My Mom gave us this shell picture that "Fits" very nicely in our upstairs bathroom!
Brad and Jess gave us this AWESOME laser carved wood relief map of Sanibel that "Fits" perfectly on our wall at the first landing of the stairs!
Here is a better picture of it from the web, it doesn't photograph very well because of the flash!

I hope all of your Christmas gifts "fit" as well as ours did!! :)  While we were down here we decided to see how the shelling was this time of year!! There are super low tides, but they are about 4:30 am so we got our there just before dawn at about 6:30. The shelling wasn't GREAT but it was very pleasant temperature wise, a little cloudy and we got a few special finds!!






Hopefully we will have more luck tomorrow morning!! Stay tuned!!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Friday, December 6, 2013

The last day, but not the last post!

Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.  ~Author Unknown

I realized I didn't share yesterday's shells with you all, so I will post both days here and will probably have another post tomorrow because we are going to experience the luminaries on Sanibel tonight!!

So here are yesterday's treasures remember it was fighting conch day!! :)
Isn't that Crazy??? I couldn't help myself!!
Bad pic, but you see how many there are!!
Ever seen a PINK conch??
Love the pear whelks!!

Hubby and I both found double jewel boxes!!
Hubby found 4 pear whelks
We finished off the day with the best seat in the house....Dinner with a view!!



Today we went back to the tidal pool, Hubby worked in the same area as yesterday for a little while, I worked along the edge of the pool and did a little digging in the pen shells, looking for minis.

Hubby's finds today
My finds
I just did catch the sunrise...a little late!!

We had some surprise finds today too!!
Sand dollars! 
And my favorite...a Horse Conch!! A big one buried in the tidal pool! I couldn't believe it was all there!! I took a picture with my foot so you can see how big he is!!
He still has a little of the orange on the inside!!
He's taking a bath in some bleach right now so I will post pics when he's all cleaned up!! What a great way to finish the shelling trip!! 

Someone had already decorated the beach...how Awesome is this?? A Beach tree... Love it!!


We will be heading home tomorrow :( But will have another post showing you all the sights and sounds from luminaries on the island!!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A day of Firsts!


"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea."

~e.e. cummings

First, let me show you our finds from yesterday! We found most of these in the tidal pool with light digging around pen shells. Notice we both picked up an angel wing!!

Hubby's finds
My Finds
All together!
Nice Big Angel wing!
Hubby got a nice King's crown!!


Today was another beautiful day, we got up before the sun so we could greet it walking along the gulf.  We headed down toward Sundial (East) so we could be at the tidal pool today as it got uncovered by the ultra low tide.  We immediately found pen shells and started carefully moving them, (while checking inside them) and found a few little pretties, banded tulips, apple murex etc.
Hubby worked here and that's my pile in the back!!
A closer look at the inspected pen shells

 We moved down a little and found a place that had pen shells that were buried, and obviously had been for a while. It's only in about 6 or 8 inches of water.  I immediately spotted one of my favorites, horse conchs, 3 of them, alas they were alive.
This is my favorite size too...isn't it beautiful??

But it was alive so it had to be carefully placed back into the water!! :(

We started checking each pen shell and they were absolutely LOADED with juvenile fighting conchs, and everywhere we dug we would find them!! There must have been thousands of every size and color you could imagine!! They were all dead, though some still had the meat in them and had to be carefully flushed out!! They must have gotten trapped and died there!! We dug there for a couple of hours, I did the Sanibel Stoop for a while, then the Sanibel Squat and finally just plopped down and did the Sanibel Sit!! Hubby had enough and headed back down toward the car to work on another area and I stayed put for a while....we never scratched the surface! For the first time ever I got tired of finding shells!!!
I worked the clear area on the right, Hubby on the left
Those in the middle weren't even touched....That will be a job for tomorrow if we can find them again!!
They were all mini fighting conchs, with a murex every so often....I could not imagine that I would get tired of them, I kept thinking I would find something else....but I didn't and never finished looking in an area any bigger than about 3 foot square! It was amazing!! I will go back tomorrow to the same place, and try in that center area!!

On the way back I started noticing the patterns in the sand that the live olive trails made, how cool would these be if you 'jazzed' the pictures up using different colors or even tried to spell out words and put them on the wall in matching frames?! They were just awesome!!
Here is an SI for Sanibel island!!






 Just about the time we got to where we would head in toward the car, I noticed some movement on the sand! Look what it is!! Another first for me...a Seahorse!! He was obviously distressed and needed to be put back into the water so after snapping a few quick pictures I walked out fairly deep to put him back in!! I just can't tell you how fantastic that is to me!! I think of seahorses like unicorns, that they are just fantasies....this one was real and alive....so, so Awesome!! I am still so excited! My Seahorse picture and decorations at our condo in Ft. Myers now take on a whole new meaning!! ....Just Awesome!! :)





More tomorrow!!

::Hugs::

Cheri