A Wonderful Windy Day on Keewaydin Island

I'm back in Florida paradise, and have been since right after Thanksgiving. I have been spending most of my time getting ready for Christmas, Florida style! Baking, shopping, wrapping, crafting for Craft shows with the Sanibel Community House, and of course I had to do a little bit of shelling. This time of year is wonderful shelling, the tides are super low, and normally the winds push the shells up to the beach. I've been a few times, gotten a few treasures but nothing too much to brag about...yet.  Lynne, Liz and I did take a trip out to Keewaydin Island with Hemingway Water Shuttle ! I have been with this small, family owned business many times and will continue to do so....and you should too when you are down here! If you haven't been following the weather down here, we have some sort of a storm going on, LOTS of wind, heavy gusts at times, and today and tomorrow they are adding rain to that forecast! We worried that the trip would be canceled, but they just had us come a little earlier and as we were done, pulling up to the dock, the wind and a bit of rain started, perfect timing! We went out to the island the 'back way' to avoid the wind in the gulf, we tiptoed through the mangrove islands and saw this beautiful Eagle! (I love Eagles!) Liz got her phone out in time to snap this pic....

We actually saw 4 eagles today!!
 

So, how did we do?

This was my very first find!

Isn't it a beauty? It's the Florida state shell, a Horse Conch, and one of my favorites! 

Lynne's first find was an Alphabet Cone! SCORE! I really was glad to see that...I would like for her to enjoy herself and come again!

My next find was a first for me....though it is not perfect, and a little pitted, it has definitely been on my bucket list of things I want to find! It's called a Caribbean Vase Shell!!!!

I was tickled pink!!! If I don't find anything else, My day was made!!
 

I have many pictures so I'll just take you on the trip as I took pics....more seeing less talking! :)

an Olive, 2 Gaudy Nauticas, and a beautiful Florida Cone....

a HUGE worm shell, a Banded Tulip, a Pear Whelk at the top next to a Lacey, Lace Murex, a tiny Pear Whelk and another Gaudy!

There were lots of Live Large Lightning Whelks, so good to see!!!

Not a perfect Alphabet Cone, but so huge!, another Olive, tiny dusty cone, Juvenile Horse Conch, worm shell and Nice sized Kings Crown.

ANOTHER Alphie, a pretty Christmasy True Tulip, a Chocolate Alphabet Cone (dark colors) a Shark's eye, another worm shell and 2 Nutmegs...

more Olives, a Chocolate True Tulip and another small Gaudy.


There were many, many broken big shells all over the place....They were obviously old and well-worn!

We all picked our spot and shelled separately but compared notes frequently....

Lynne seemed to be doing just fine!

She found a Live Calico Clam, it was beautiful...

She put him back in the gulf after his photo op....

I think Liz was doing well too.....

She found this beautiful Neon Orange Horse Conch!!

It was a cloudy day, and somewhat windy, but the temperature was perfect, not too hot, not too cold! Perfect in my book!!! 

We bid Keewaydin a fond farewell with plans on another trip coming soon with our bags full!

Here's all the shells I picked up, I was somewhat of a shell snob, but there are just some I can't resist! I could've filled up all my shell bags with Fighting Conchs, banded tulips, lightning whelks...all sorts of treasures...so this is what I settled on for now....

not bad for 3 hours of shelling huh?! I'll take it!

 Here is the Vase shell after a bleach soak, they are normally very white....

I think Liz had a successful day as well....here are her favorites!

Lynne had a great time and has promised she will be coming back with us soon, no pictures from her this time as she is always busy and she and I have a Craft Show this weekend!! Busy Busy!!!

We will head back to Virginia for Christmas next week, then back down here after for some more adventures! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your families! May you be blessed and celebrate the true reason of the season!!!

Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Small Adventures

 It's time for a quick update...Do you remember those large Lightning Whelks I got last week just before Thanksgiving?? That great day when I was laughing out loud on the beach?? Here is that picture again...those 2 large white shell at the top...

Well I scraped off the barnacles and cleaned them up in a bleach bath....now look at them!

Didn't they turn out nice??? The big Horse Conch is taking a little longer, he should be ready to be revealed in the next day or two.

The tides aren't great and the shelling hasn't been very good so I've been on a couple of small adventures, just something different! Jolene and I decided to take a trip to a few of the mudflats around Fort Myers to see what we could find. Plus I need to collect some Sunray Venus to paint, I think they are my favorite to paint.....

The 3 shells on the left are the Sunray Venus and the one on the right is called a Kings Crown....pretty obvious why I would say! These Kings also need cleanup with a bleach bath and then a quick dip in a diluted acid bath and it will really bring out those colors....I'll keep you posted how it turns out.....

another fun find in the mudflats are these beautiful little Rose Tellins.....

Jolene set out to collect these....and I'd say she did pretty well, wouldn't you?!!

She also picked up a few Kings....

Here's her days end finds Coral, Kings Crowns, and a couple Cones!....

I did well at collecting the Sunrays....There are a few Kings and Pear Whelks in my collection....

Jolene and I saw Cheri out there also and she gave us a tip to lookout for some minis to include BIG tusk shells.....I did pretty well with that also! The quarter is there to give you a reference for size....at the top is a dusty cone, some marginella, a dog Whelk(?), Keyhole limpet, tiny lightning Whelk and a Coquina pair!

After a day off to rest, Liz and her Hubby invited me to go to Lover's Key. It's only about 20 minutes or so from my house and I have never been!!! So, Heck yeah....I'm up for another adventure!!!

It started out very cool, as we were headed toward the beach, we crossed a bridge and there was a dolphin right under it...I took several pics into the water and none turned out, but I did manage to catch him as he came out...not a very good pic, but he wasn't posing for us!

The funny part was there was a Great Blue Heron following him, obviously hoping to find some fish! I tried to catch a pic of him.."on the fly" (pardon the pun)

It turns out Lover's key is a really pretty beach, great for walking....we walked from one end to the other!!

The had several 'Shell Trees' there, you make a wish and hang a shell (with a hole in it) on a limb of the tree! Yes I hung a shell of my own!!

The water was crystal clear....it was just beautiful!

I got infatuated with the Worm shells, the were tight little spirals and most ended up in a point....like tiny little Christmas trees!!

I also found a couple of colorful little nutmegs (top Center), of course some Shark's eyes, and a couple of Florida Cones....

and lots of minis! Check out that Sharks eye on that penny at the top!!

I also found a nice sized Baby's ear (with a tiny hole in it)   

And a small piece of a Junonia!!!

Liz found this BEAUTIFUL Albino Olive!! I couldn't believe how bright white it was!!!(Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good picture of it, the focus was off!)
        

Here it is with the rest of the Olives She and her Hubby collected...

She also found quite a few Sand dollars!

We did find several Sea Stars and we both tried to rescue them by putting them back into the Gulf...

and we put this beautiful Sea Urchin back into the Gulf....

The weather was amazing, the beach was beautiful and we walked from one end to the other and had a GREAT time!! Beach Therapy at it's best!! 

My time is growing short, we will be heading back to cold Virginia in the next couple of days, but plan on being back in paradise right after Christmas. I may post again, but in case I don't I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

::Shelllady Hugs::