Friends and Family Week in SW Florida!

 Jess, our daughter, flew down to spend the week with us! I've always wanted to get her down here in February for the best shelling month! She flew in Friday on the day with the lowest tide, and I had scheduled a special shelling trip for Saturday to Keewaydin on the Hemingway Shuttle! 

A panoramic view of Keewaydin from the point

From Left top row: Liz, Dianne, Cindy, Jess, Me and Lynne
Front row: Teresa and Cheri

I was So excited for her to see the great shells this time of year and to meet many of my friends! 8 of us traveled down together! I didn't take as many pics as I wanted, but I did get a few!

She got several pics of Live stuff out there, which is always so good to see, It's been a while since she has seen this!

a Live Banded Tulip....

and a NICE pony Horse Conch! (pony refers to the size, it just means mid-sized, not too big, and not too small, Just right!)

...and the Mama Horse Conch....

a live Scallop...Notice all the deep blue eyes around the edges of the shells....

I found this Lightning Whelk having a fine lunch of Sunray Venus...

Jess got this great shot of the Terns hanging out at the point with us!

When we got to the island, we all kind of went our own way...The other Cheri (Bird-nerd) as she is affectionately called, says she was going birding this trip, not shelling!  Look what she picked up!!!! 

Yep!! A Junonia! Not bad for not shelling, huh?? She also got a Rose Murex!

and quite a few other treasures!!! Way to go Cheri! She won the prize for finds this trip!! Cones, Flats....Perfect!!!(and she says she didn't see many birds!)

The shelling wasn't as great for me this trip, I did see this pretty dark Cone, peeking out at me from under the sand...

Cindy did well with the cones

...and lots of other treasures!

Dianne got a couple of Cones too......and a Bucket full!!

Jess found 2 Brittle stars that weren't alive that she took home to her boys!

You may have read or heard that the night before this trip, on Friday night, a plane crash landed on Interstate 75 near naples. It was on the route to our trip, so the interstate was closed...we regrouped, planned to leave a little earlier and chose our detour. It was still an easy uneventful trip, thank goodness, we traveled together in 2 cars, and even had time for breakfast!! On the trip back, they opened the North bound lanes and we had an opportunity to see it, I cannot imagine how three people in that plane walked away! The pilot and copilot didn't make it, but appeared to do a great job of keeping the fatalities down!! 

My prayers to their families!

Monday, Jess went with me to Shellcrafters at the Community House, she fit right in, finished one Shell Tree like I always do, and then created her own! 

She used Gar scales and Bubbles...I think it turned out Great! Don't you?? 

It will be for sale at the Sanibel Shell festival, along with lots of other creations....come on down and check it out on March 7-9th! (Okay, enough advertising!! :) Again, I forgot to take pictures!!

Liz lives in Cape Coral, and it is known for burrowing Owls! Jess, I figured since Jess is a veterinarian, she would enjoy seeing them! As it turns out, she had never even heard of such a thing! So Tuesday we headed out on another adventure! Owls! Liz and her Hubby had scouted out where we could find them within walking distance of her house, and she did not disappoint!

These guys are so cool to watch!! Thanks Liz for a great adventure!

We did Keewaydin and walked Lighthouse point on Sanibel, but Jess had never been to Fort Myers Beach! It has recently been a great beach for shelling for us....she had a great time with some great finds!

We saw another Brittle Star....

This time he was alive!

It was her turn to get a Rose Murex!

and what a perfect one it is!!

She had the eye for cones....she got these three pretty close together!

The Lace Murex at Fort Myers Beach, are particularly Lacy!

and who doesn't love a Chocolate True Tulip??

She enjoyed it so much, she wanted to go again on Thursday before it was time to catch her flight back home!!! So we did!! (That's my girl!! ) :)

Here are her finds....

The little black container was traveling home with her, some of those shells are earmarked for her own Hermit Crabs at home in Virginia!!

We had planned on snapping a pic or two of us together, again, I forgot! We had a GREAT week and I miss her already!! Thanks to all my friends that made her feel so welcome, she said she likes my retirement life....and you know what???....me too!!!

Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

North West Winds, Negative Low Tides, New Moon....The Perfect Recipe!

I know I've said this before, but I'm just going to say it again....February is my favorite month for shelling! The weather here has been cooler than normal, that just means you add another layer of clothing and go out there with a really good flashlight and you're good!

Cindy and I did just that this morning, and it did not disappoint! We had the best time! Again, I didn't take a lot of pictures, partly because it's hard to juggle a camera, shellbag, & flashlight....mainly because I was too busy picking up stuff! Today for me was True Tulip day! 

It started out with this beautiful Live True Tulip, of course, he went back in after this photo op....was this a sign? Maybe!

This beauty was peeking out of the sand on a sandbar.... One of the nice things about Trues is they come in many colors!

Reds and Oranges

Here's another reddish Orange and what we call a Chocolate with a reddish top! Aren't they beautiful? Again, one of my favorites! ;)

We are also trying to find Cindy some big Horse Conchs and Lighting Whelks!....

Walking through the nearly empty (of water) Tidal pool, we stumbled on this beauty...

When you see it, a little voice in your head says....'please don't be alive, please be whole'....then you start lifting and digging him out...........

Viola!!! He was not alive, and whole!!!! (in great shape too, not a lot of cleaning to do!!)

We continued in the tidal pool, saw so many Large Live Lightning Whelks, both with the original Snail and with Hermit Crabs!

We don't take Live shells of any kind, they have to be empty! We saw so many!

The sun started coming up, and the birds were coming out....another beautiful morning and amazing Sunrise was on it's way....

As we continued our search in the tidal pool, the seagulls were picking up live Cockles, flying up in the air with them & dropping them on the nearby sand bar to break them open and eat the meat inside!! It's fun to watch!!

While we were picking up shells, and checking Lightning Whelks for inhabitants we found this awesome looking sponge....It is purple on the outside edges...I'm guessing it is a type of boring sponge....I looked it up in my books, but couldn't find it, maybe some of you scientific, Oceanographers can let me know!! ;)

The sunrise did not disappoint!

Doesn't it just make you say..."Ahhhhhhh"?!

Finally, as we got closer to the exit, she found it! 

How pretty is that??

To me the day was a Huge Success!! Here are my finds....The paper figs on the top right are for a friend Lynne to craft with....

I ended up with 15 True Tulips, of every color!!! (center of pic, of course I rarely pass up Shark's eyes (to the right of center) Banded Tulips, And check out thos Alphabet Cones! The 2 on the right are pretty good sized! Below those and to the right are a few Pear Whelks, Bottom Center are varing sizes of Horse Conchs, to their left are Apple murex, then a Kings Crown and a couple Olives. to their left are just some colorful Scallops with a worm shell!

I'd say it was a good morning....wouldn't you?!

Here's an update: Remember this guy from my last post?

With a lot of soaking in bleach, and some scraping and picking, this is how he turned out!!

Isn't it a beauty??? It still has a perfect tip with a little white dot, just like it was born with!!

Well, Stay Tuned, Hopefully more adventures to come this week in particular with these amazing low tides, and winter winds!!

::Shelllady Hugs::