Casing the Beach

 Mondays are for Shellcrafting with the Sanibel Shellcrafters at the Community House. I've been stuck in the terrible traffic of Contractors heading 'on island' quite a few times. It's no fun, and is an awful start of your day. So I found a way around it! Mondays, I head to the island before 7 am, usually around 6 for a 9 o'clock meeting. So guess what I do....walk the beach!! I don't worry about the tides, it's just a much better start to my day! So....this morning I crossed the bridge right at 6, no delay and drove to the beach, it was 3 hours before low tide, but the winds have been right. I know you'll think I'm making this up, but right after I got there, this shell rolled out of the waves, right up to my feet!!! Shazam!! 

A Florida Horse Conch....It's not too big, or too small, just right!! It still has a nice orange color and even a white perfect tip, with a little work, it will be BEAUTIFUL....This is one of my favorites!! LOL, but you all know that! ;)

A few more steps and I found all 3 of these nice Lightning Whelks!

I looked in front of me, and behind me, and I had the entire beach to myself! No one was playing tricks....just at the right place at the right time! I said to myself, I'm sooo glad I got up early to get here this morning!

A little bit further down and I found these Cowries, within a few feet of each other....they are not usually found here, but they are found in the keys and on the east coast, maybe Hurricane Ian moved things around a bit! They're broken, but the familiar "teeth" are in great shape!!

This Huge Old guy (Another Florida Horse Conch) was right along the waterline....he has been around for a LOOOOONNG time! He didn't have a good point, and looked to be in bad shape, though Whole, but I left him for someone else to enjoy!

That's my foot next to him to give you a size reference....

There were also a few Pear Whelks out there that were in good shape...

Slowly the sun began to come up, and light my path....what a gorgeous day!

I had a little company, there are some birds walking there with me....

There were lots of Cockle pairs out there, large and small...most were empty, 

Here's a two for one deal, a twofer!! A lightning Whelk in a Lightning Whelk!

February has always been my favorite month for shelling....The large shells start to come in, the winds blow in from the North, though it's cooler, it brings in the shells....and the egg casings! Remember in my last post, I showed you the True Tulip putting it's egg casings on a pen shell, here's a little closer view....

Tulip egg casings...

They are ruffly, and each one is actually triangular, all put together in one large group....

in each 'triangle' are many many babies, that grow up to be Tulips!!!...I put it up to the sun so you could see them in there through the skin of the casing.

These 'Snaky' looking things, are actually Lightning Whelk Egg casings.

The Whelk lays these disks that are joined by a sort of thick thread on the back side....

This is showing you the individual disks.... there is a small hole in each disk, for the shells to swim out of and into the Gulf.... to grow up!!

once again, I put it up to the sun so you can see the tiny, tiny whelks... you can see how tiny, compared to my thumb nail!

How interesting is that?!

This is actually a Skate or shark case, ...I put it up to the light and it was empty. We fondly call these Mermaid purses....

With the sunrise, my adventure was complete, now time to go and get creative!

Enjoy YOUR day! 

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Time to Catch up! Happy New Year 2024!

 Hubby and I had a simple quiet Christmas this year, just the two of us, something I guess we should get used to as our kids are all grown and have families of their own! I hope you all had a good Christmas also.

We came back down to our paradise in early January, and we have been practicing retirement. I think I'm going to like it! I have been very busy, but fun busy, you know what I mean, right?? I've been crafting with the Shellcrafters and participating in small Craft shows at the Sanibel Community House, while crafting to get ready for our big Annual Shell Festival in March. My creativity is being challenged, but oh so fun.....if you know me, you know it's all about shells! 

I've been making Shell Trees which are a popular item

of course painting shells to hide around Sanibel, 

                                            

and making shadow boxes...

(I made the fish out of shells too! :)

I've been trying my best to make shell flowers, I'm not very good at that, 

we have some ladies in Sanibel Shellcrafters that make just beautiful flowers! In fact, one of these ladies and I taught a class on how to make a shadow box like you see here! What fun it was, I think our 'students' really enjoyed it! That may be something we will do on a regular basis starting soon!

I've turned my Santas into Gnomes since the Holidays are done! 

I've even volunteered in the Kitchen at the Community House for it's 97th Annual Gala!!! Lots of work, but oh so fun!!! 

Meanwhile, of course you know I've been walking the beach, this time of year is ideal for that, the tides are super low, and the sunrises are beautiful!!

This sunrise is actually at Fort Myers Beach, I'll never pass up a photo op, no matter where it is! 

Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach continue to improve daily after the devastation brought by Ian, in fact, the 'broken leg' on the lighthouse was replaced this week!

If you click on the picture here, you can see the wooden 'cast' on the bottom left, it now has a brand new leg! (Picture soon)

They are diligently working at replacing all the sand that washed out near the resorts during the storm, 

there were large gullys along the resort fronts (beachside).

It seems like weekly there is another business, either restaurant, resort or shop that is opening up. There are still many who had to walk away and sell, and some that had to be completely leveled and start again....but there is progress, great progress and a lot of hard work going on every where you look!

And me and my friends are still cruising the beaches at all hours of the day and night, creating some new adventure....there's life out there too!

One particular trip there were lots of nice live Lightning Whelks....

We've seen some BEAUTIFUL live True Tulips....like this guy on a Pen shell...if you look closely on the shell, see the ruffles below it? Those are actually Tulip egg casings! There will be hundreds of tiny tulip shells heading out with the next tide as it goes under water! To the left is the door, or operculum. It fits perfectly over the opening where the snail comes out, he will close that door for protection after all the eggs casings are completed!

I was lucky enough to find a few True tulips that weren't live! One of my favorites...I guess I say that about a lot of shells ! :)

Here's another one, another color, with 2 Shark's eyes! (LOL, another favorite)

We've found a lot of Pear Whelks this season, like the one on the left and nice dark Shiny Olives, and Jewel box pairs!

Jolene found a huge one the other day....

and of course, we're always happy to find Alphabet Cones....though they have been few and far between lately....just that much more special when we do, right?!

Cindy found this beautiful Sea Urchin the other morning, it was dead, but still had some of it's spines still intact! This guy is huge!!

This is always fun....Shells everywhere!!

of course, I couldn't resist this shark's eye, check out those colors!! They call this a 'Paul Newman' eye, because the center is a beautiful sky blue!

There is always something interesting out there....Cheri and I found this skull at the Lighthouse last week, we're not sure what it is from, but it was very interesting! I'll have our resident Veterinarian (Jess) check out these photos and see if she can figure out what it is!! Any Ideas??

Liz and I decided to hit the beach this morning for some Kittens paws to help resupply the crafts at the Community house! The beach between Sanibel and Captiva is usually the place to go...so we did!

We saw this fun Hermit Crab out on a sand bar!

Liz caught these beautiful pics of the sunrise across the islands

I was too busy picking up shells....she got that too!! ;)

We saw 2 Frigate birds in a battle with a seagull, something we have never seen before! Liz caught a couple of pics of the Frigates as they flew back out over the gulf...

We had good success, this should help with the Shortages of Kittens paws, I figure I'll be back there soon for more.....

The highlight of the morning for me was this beautiful Speckled Tellin!!

So, you are caught up! Mark your calendars for the 87th Annual Shell Festival at the Community House, March 7-9 if you are in the area! We are working hard to make it a wonderful experience for everyone and the Community!! I'll keep walking the beaches gathering supplies and adventures to share next time! 

Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::