The Shells are here!

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~Carol Sobieski

Today's shelling was so much better....the tides are beginning to get lower and the gulf was crystal clear!! 

I ended up digging in pen shells I found.  

See the shells in and around the pen shells?

In fact, I didn't have to walk very far at all in the 3 hours we were out there! 
There must have been hundreds of Dosinia pairs there, they just help the pen shells trap the other shells. Unfortunately I had my camera with me so couldn't sit down and really dig....until Hubby came to where I was! I gave him my camera to put in his shirt pocket and sat and dug until the last possible minute! We didn't find anything spectacular, but I found lots of shells....I was going through my net while we were walking back to the car, and I'm sure I missed some! We had to get back home and start packing up because we are leaving tomorrow. :(  I realized too, that my major problem this week was that I wasn't wearing my lucky shelling shorts, today I did!! I bet that was it all along!! ;)

The pictures aren't the best because it was getting dark by the time I got them all cleaned.

My finds 

Hubby's finds

Hubby found an Awesome Shark's eye!

I found the smallest olive I've seen! 

This is an average size olive

I found 5 wentletraps, and lost the smallest, only to find it in the dryer, in the pocket of the shell shorts!! :) 

Hubby found him some Florida cones! 

I found my first carrier shells, and found 2 in a row!!

And some beautiful Pear Whelks!

I must say, we had a great time, and felt like we had to hurry up! That's a lot of fun, I wish we could stay a few more days....but there is always next time! I hope you all have enjoyed our trip....Thanks for coming along! We head up north tomorrow bright and early.

::Hugs::

Cheri

An Exciting end to the day!

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~John Burroughs

We worked around the house again today and then to Sanibel Fish House for an early dinner with plans to head to the beach for the end of the day.  The Fish House did not disappoint, I had the shrimp basket and Hubby had the oysters, of course you have to end the meal with a piece of shared key lime pie!

We headed over to Gulfside City Park and noticed the Gulf was once again very clear with a few small waves....unfortunately the shells once again were pretty scarce.  However the temperature was amazing, and I love to watch the birds along the shore and flying overhead and just take everything in around me! Beach therapy is the best therapy I know of!

Someone had gotten very creative down towards Casa Ybel...

A place to sit and watch TV!

A dinosaur! (I think)

As the sun began to set, Hubby and I noticed some small shells rolling along in the surf and we managed to pick up a few...the water was clear, you just had to be patient and wait for the wave to clear to see. We ended up doing okay..

Hubby's finds

My finds

Hubby found a small golden olive!! That is a fairly rare find!!

...and he found a PINK juvenile fighting conch!

 Of course, I can always find some pretty scallops!!

As we were getting ready to leave, we were passing a group of fishermen, we heard one of the reels begin to spin....turned around and saw this young guy had quite a fish at the end of his line!

We stood there for several minutes watching, and he drew quite a crowd before it was over! After 10-15 minutes we began to see the result of his fight.

A ~5 foot shark...someone mentioned a lemon shark, I know it was really beautiful!
Here are a couple of videos I took of him catching it, then releasing it!

During this time, I turned around and managed to catch my AWWWW of the day with some beautiful color behind the palms of Gulfside City Park.

Today is our last day, :(  ...not sure of our plans, but maybe one more shelling journey to share?!

::Hugs::

Cheri

I got a Flat!

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye

We are beginning to fit in down here, it's becoming more and more like we belong. We attended the HOA meeting this morning (as OWNERS...in Florida!! :) and met several of our neighbors, we came out of the meeting to a warning on our car that we had low air pressure in a tire.  This has been a chronic problem with us lately, the most recent have had to patch a tire with a screw in it in the last month! After a quick chat with a neighbor on local vendors, Hubby went on down to have it looked at and was back in about 30 minutes! This time it was a dremel tool embedded in the tread! 

....I bet by the title you thought I got a FLAT scallop?! Well I did!! :) Only my second ever!

The shelling hasn't been fantastic, but the walks on the beach and weather have been! There were shell piles on the beach in places, though no 'special shells' (other than my flat scallop).

The water was really clear and much calmer than it's been, hubby spent a lot of time in the water, while I walked along the beach.

....still trying for the perfect pelican in flight shot!

Here are our finds, mine is combined with the micro minis I told you about from Bunche Beach the night before...

Hubby's finds...Today was Olive Day for him!

My finds

I can't decide if these are Mitchell Wentletraps or Horn Shells....any ideas?

Marginellas...see how tiny?

Nassas

It feels good that every day we spend here makes it feel more like Home, it sure is good therapy for us too! We only have a couple more days before we head back to our 'Real Life'...stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Cheri

I almost forgot!! I took this video yesterday evening...I thought it was so interesting....is something down there? Is Sanibel sinking? What is it?? I saw a couple of these last night!!

Another day of Accomplishment in Paradise!

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hubby and I came down this time with ideas on what we wanted to accomplish this trip. I am proud to say that we completed most of it today, by noon and it's only Tuesday! We finished the wall around our new windows....we were a little concerned because we had to go get more paint, but luckily had the can the original was made from and Lowe's was able to match it...perfectly! How awesome is that? We figured out if we could peel back the carpet, doing the trim paint would be so much easier. We were very pleased with the final result, now the window walls are finally complete.

 We also patched and painted several holes in the walls where the previous owners had hung pics or curtains, we took our time and in no time it was done, and we had fun doing it!!

I looked out of the window today and saw this Cormorant on the other side of the pond with this fish, you could see him trying to figure out how he was going to eat his catch. With patience and persistence he got it done! Check this out!

OUCH!

 Have you ever??

As promised, here are the few shells we have gotten in the last few days, the shelling is slow, but that's okay, just walking the beaches is enough for me. I did find some empty kings crowns!

Keyhole limpets

I went back to Bunche Beach this evening after dinner and didn't have much luck shelling, but I love the birds down here, and they did not disappoint.

 I believe this guy is a Tricolored Heron, I don't think I have ever seen one of these before!

 Here is a Reddish Egret, this guy followed along behind me or ahead of me the entire evening. I named him Simon...

The beaches were pretty barren, but there were many micro-mini shells in several places, at first glance they looked like small piles of rice or coarse sand.

When you look a little closer, you can see so many micro-minis.  I picked up many tiny shells, will need to look several of them up! I like it when that happens. Pics in tomorrow's post.

Of course I have to end this post with more beautiful SW Florida sunsets!

There's Simon leading me back!

A beautiful end to another perfect day in paradise!

I started the day today reading my favorite blogs, one of which is The Shell King, he posted about patience today and I found it very inspiring....go on over there and read it for yourself! I thought it was awesome and thought about it all day! I hope it inspires you too! http://theshellking.com/2014/05/20/be-patient/

::Hugs::

Cheri