Shelllady

Shelllady

Friday, January 23, 2015

There's Always a Way!

Our final day started out like the rest, a beautiful morning, mid 60s at 6:30 am...in January!!  When we arrived at the beach and got out of the car, we could hear the wind blowing on the beach. It was really blowing strong straight into the shore from the Gulf. I can bet that there will be some great shelling coming up in the next few days!! 

It was a beautiful sunrise one more time!



 


As I look at these pics now, you can't really tell by the waves how hard the wind was blowing, it was very strong, the waves were really rolling in.  As a result, shelling again would be different, and a challenge.  You know us shellers though, we will always find a way!! The high tide line was fairly barren, I walked a long way along the shoreline, and the middle tide line, Hubby even went the opposite direction looking for tidal pools or exposed sand bars. Neither of us had much luck, we even looked for areas to dig. When the tide was at it's lowest, we managed to find some treasures rolling around in the surf.  This is really working at it! You have one chance to spy it, either by color or shape, and you have to go for it with your hand or scoop....you may or may not get it, and very quickly 3 more waves have pushed it further in, or buried it under more shells or the sand.  It really was a lot of fun....and work! At one point, Hubby stumbled over some worn out fighting conchs buried in the sand under the surf and managed to dig a little and found quite a few shells that way.  I am really surprised how well we did!

Hubby's
Mine 
Hubby found some of my favorites...Horse conchs, look at that gorgeous color on the center one!
I found 2 more winged oysters!! That's a perfect score, I found at least one every day this trip....I have never seen so many! I probably have only found 4 or 5 in the almost 18 years we have been coming here. These were all very small, but I just think they are awesome, very rustic outside, with a very colorful pearl-like interior.


I didn't finish my new home project this trip, but I am documenting its progress with pictures, and hope to complete it next time! We did get some awesome gifts from our family for Christmas this year and I did get those put up.
Hubby's oldest daughter Stacey and her husband Steve gave us some wonderful pics of themselves, as did his middle daughter April and her husband Jon, a cool beachy looking frame with a family portrait with our 4 grandbabies! 

I plan on making one whole wall in our bedroom a 'family wall' and will hang them there when I get all organized. Meanwhile, they are with our most treasured pics on the bookshelf.


Stacey and Steve also gave us this awesome blown glass shell, that got it's place of honor with our signs in the den. 
Jess and Brad gave us this awesome wall hanging that we hung over our entry door, appropriate don't you think?

Our sister-in-law Maxine, gave us these cool little soap containers that, like the rest of our gifts, just happen to match our colors and decor! What a coincidence! :)

I hope you all have enjoyed the posts this trip. With a heavy heart, we will head up north early tomorrow morning, where it is at least 40 degrees cooler! ....and snow in our forecast for Monday!! <sigh>

I plan on playing with shells from this trip, so stay tuned for another post soon! BTW, our youngest daughter Jess is due in February, so expect some news and bragging soon! Thanks for tagging along!!

::Hugs::


Thursday, January 22, 2015

Another Beautiful Day!

The tides are getting a little later and a little higher, and as I said before, every day is different! Today we saw millions of minis washing in the surf, a few other shells along the trough of the 'tidal pool'.  A few while digging in spots. Today was a little bit of everything! That's what makes it so fun!!

It was another beautiful morning.




We ran across a live lightning whelk before the sun came up, and realized that it was the first one we had seen this week.  In fact, we saw very few live shells...I hope it is just a seasonal thing! I carefully buried him back where I found him (after his photo shoot)!


On the way back home, Hubby stopped at the beach under the causeway bridge so I could look for some tellins!  It was a successful trip, I got quite a few both white and rose tellins!



We got a wide variety of shells again today, Many minis!! 
I got at least one winged oyster every day this week!!
Another winged oyster!
Notice how small most of the shells are! I tried to make sure there was a ruler in each pic to show scale.  I love the minis!
Many mini fighting conchs, and tulips

One of my favorites....horse conchs

Double jewel boxes, and tiny cones and buttons
An array of Nutmegs the Hubby found...
....and so did I
Mini Lightning whelks

and an Old fossilized pure white Lace Murex
One more day in paradise, then we get to head north and freeze with the rest of you all!! Today it was 40 degrees warmer here than home!! It sure makes it difficult to leave this remarkable place!! Stay tuned!!

::Hugs::

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A BEAUTIFUL Day in January

Today was the day I have been dreaming of:

  1. Warm Sunshine
  2. Clear Skies
  3. Low Tides
  4. Good Shells
 My definition of Paradise! As the commercial says, "Priceless" !







It was a perfect day, I wore the "Shell bag lady" garb, and pretty quickly came out of the sweatshirt. I probably would have been fine in the shorts too, but all was perfect.  The low tide was after the sunrise, so we could see very well to find all the treasures. My favorite type of shelling is in the tidal pools, so many wonderful things to see, living creatures, shells and the promise of some sort of surprise and adventure.  The last few trips we have found that the shoreline along Gulfside City park has completely changed.  Even at more than a negative 1 low tide the sand bar does not show itself and as a result, there are no tidal pools. Earlier this year there was a newly formed sandbar right in front of Ocean's Reach, but alas it is also gone. Today we had sort of a tidal pool due to a flat area of the beach.

Right along the ridge there were so many shells partially buried and just lying there in groups. The sand was fairly loose and we would just run our fingers through to gather the shells. Have a look for yourself! (If you click the pics, they will open full screen for your cybershelling enjoyment).
Do you see a double jewelbox, olives, augers, a mini horse conch, a turban and a wentletrap? (I missed it!)
More Olives, juvenile fighting conchs, bubbles, and irregular worm shells!

A sand dollar!

It was so much fun! We had the best day yet! 







I even found an angel wing....not perfect, but I'll take it! Look how big it is!
...and 2 more alphabet cones! Again, not perfect, one actually somewhat deformed! But with our recent dry spell, it gives us some hope for finding them!


We found an array of shells, a wide variety! Such fun!

Check out the size of Hubby's apple murex!
Stay tuned....another negative low tide after sunrise tomorrow!

::Hugs::