Another Windy Day

'Plan B' paid off with the shells, as I said before, I love shelling the tidal pools.

My finds, quite a variety!

Hubby's finds

My Mini True tulip 

Hubby's true tulip

My Lacey Lace Murex

Hubby's Lace Murex, double jewel box, and horse conchs

I found another winged oyster (right) and several mussel pairs, and of course mini fighting conchs

The wind continues to blow, so much so it was really pushing against the car going across the causeway. These pictures don't really look that way, but believe me it's really blowing!

So back to the tidal pool we go!

We didn't find as many treasures this time, and many of the scallops were gone, back into the gulf with the high tide, I suppose.
We did continue to find many live horse conchs, which is a good thing, they can multiply and grow!  Such beautiful colors!

We saw many live olives this time, writing in the sand....

....and live cockles....this one is incognito!

Almost looks like a fish peering out of the sand, doesn't it?

Will post pics of the shells from today on my next post, still need to clean and sort them. Hopefully the wind has calmed down today, Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Plan B:To the Tidal Pools!

As they say, everyday is different at the beach.  We got there this evening and the wind was blowing and the Gulf was really rolling.  

The beach was nearly clean with no shells to be seen, yesterday's wrack line was way up the beach, now the high tide line.  All those scallops from yesterday were gone...I started walking along what was now the high tide line and saw Hubby walking rapidly down the beach, so I followed him, about 1/2 a mile to the beginning of a tidal pool!

Like I have said many times, you have to be flexible if you are an avid sheller, conditions aren't always the same and sometimes you have to regroup and rethink.  This is actually my favorite type of shelling, there are usually so many different things to see, and almost always lots of live shells.  I took lots of pics so will keep the chit-chat to a minimum! :)

Like I said...lots of life out there! That's a good thing!

Live fighting conchs everywhere..

 There were several of these long spined sea urchins....they were beautiful!

 Several perfect Banded tulips....

 ...No score, he was live too.....

 My favorite, a horse conch, and such beautiful color....

..Nope, he was home too

 This fighting conch and beautiful horse conch were having a private conversation...

...and the fighting conch was losing this battle!

 ANOTHER beautiful Horse conch, he was having a light snack...Kinda looks like his jaw, don't you think?

I did find some goodies though, like this beautiful true tulip...

 SCORE! Nobody home!

And I found all those Scallops from yesterday....hanging out in the calm water of the tidal pool.

 If you expand click on the pic, and look closely at the orange scallop, you will see his many rows of eyes along the edge of his shell...These guys are just awesome! I spent lots of time trying to video tape them, they just sporadically swim along clacking and really move fast....I just couldn't catch any of them on video! I'll keep trying, it's so fun to watch! 

I had an escort, through a lot of this tidal pool, this snowy egret was hoping I was fishing, and was just waiting for a chance to steal some fish...

This light pink sea urchin was really neat...

...There was lots of movement going on when I picked him up for a photo op! Notice his spins moving and Two tiny crabs, one bailed out and I think the tiny spastic thing moving around is a tiny shrimp....not sure until I actually saw the video, so you will notice it made me a little nervous, so I stopped the video!

We had a great day shelling, found lots more (pictures after cleaning) than we had the day before. The sunset colors did not disappoint on this full moon.

Why is it always so much further going back to the car then it was going out there? :)

Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Scallop Day!

Hubby and I decided it was time for some much needed R & R, where better than a trip home? Spring has not really arrived yet at our home up North, and we had grown tired of low 40s at night, Florida has been calling to us. It is beautiful here, (surprised?) and low tides are in the evening, so how does an early dinner, followed by a slow stroll on the beach sound? Glorious to us! We got a little later start than anticipated, but still got a little over an hour to enjoy the 81 degree temperature.

Today must have been Scallop day. The beach was loaded with live scallops, they were slapping their shells together all over the place and tumbling in the light surf. I love to watch these guys....they weren't as active as they sometimes are, but if you watch this video closely, you will see them clacking and spitting!

They were all over the place!

 It's amazing to me how they are so different on each side, nearly every one had one side that was very colorful...

...and the other is almost always pure white!

I thought this one was beautiful, it was different than the others as it was a deep maroon, on both sides!

This orange one was awesome too...

 This sea star was enormous, and was cleverly hiding just under the surface of the sand...

 We found a few little treasures.... like this pear whelk, I'll post our finds tomorrow....

Tomorrow is officially the full moon, but it looked pretty full to me....

 The Gammaw in me cannot resist the opportunity to do a little bragging! Joseph is 2 months old today, and decided to give his Mom a little gift of sleeping through the night last night....for the first time! What a great gift! 

 ....what kind of day will tomorrow be? Stay tuned for more adventures!

::Hugs::

Back Where they started....

I fully intended to post this a few weeks ago, but it completely slipped my mind.  I am trying to post more regularly, life however continues to take more and more of my free time. 

I try to have a project each time we go home to Ft. Myers, all with the intention of making our new home, our own.  I think it's funny that for almost 18 years we have traveled home from our Sanibel trips with the famous 'shell bag'.  This bag contained all of our special prized shell possessions from each trip.  Whether we flew or drove, I made it MY job to protect this bag.  I finally have gotten these shells organized by type in our garage here in Virginia.  The last trip back to our home in Florida, I carried some of these boxes BACK!  These shells are now on display where they belong, in Florida! 

Jess and Brad gave me a beautiful glass cylinder,  this last trip I filled it up and put it on display. It's proudly located right by the front door and full past the top with lightning whelks!

                                  

On the landing of the stairs are 3 more cylinders I purchased a few trips back...

Another with lightning whelks....

Tulips..both banded and true...

...and Alphabet cones....this one needs some more work....the alphies have been pretty scarce for us lately...

I know I had many more, but there are many in my tables, so I need to get to work! ;)

I have an amazing shelf over the cabinets in the kitchen, so took advantage of part of this with these....

 This pitcher is full with juvenile fighting conchs....

 ...and how appropriate, a salad dressing container full of Olives (oil)!!

Eventually all the shells will be back home in Florida, it's fun trying to be creative with them, I remember when and where I got many of the special shells, such wonderful memories!  

::Hugs::