Slow and Steady Beach Therapy

It was another beautiful Morning near the East end of Sanibel Island, Florida.... 65 degrees and with a slight breeze, the only sounds are birds and the water slowly lapping up on the beach, headed toward low tide....How does that sound? Nice Huh?! 

Another day of Beach Therapy, and I just took my time, in no hurry....pretty soon I found this awesome Apple Murex...I don't normally pick these up as I have way too many, but this one was Big and Perfect, lacy even...

...and it was Purple inside!!

It was a nice sunrise....

 I managed to catch the sun a couple of times through the holes in the clouds....

 ...still beautiful!

Back to the beach stroll....

Olives aren't my favorite either, but I do collect them for a friend, and I couldn't resist this one....more on the way Sheila!!

I did find one of my favorites....a Medium sized Horse Conch....we call them Ponies....Love the coloring on this one.....!

...and another favorite, True Tulip....

Most of the shells I found today were buried in the sand...so you HAD to go slowly so you didn't miss anything!! They were hiding!

Small Horse Conch...

Banded Tulip....

Lightning Whelks...

I actually love this kind of shelling, takes concentration and is great Therapy! :)

I got to see some live stuff today too!!! 

This guy charged me as I stepped into his tidal pool....he was adamant that I leave the area!! 

and this beautiful Sea Anemone...

Notice, I'm getting better with the new camera....Learning every day!!

Here are some of my finds for the day....

Murex....Apple and a couple of Lace!

One of my Favorites.... Horse Conchs... so many different colors and sizes!

and more 'Sheila Shells'! (Lettered Olives)

Here's my finds for the morning....another good day!

It's supposed to cool off tonight, so I may have to add a couple of layers of clothes tomorrow....but I plan on being there!! 

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Beach Therapy...Being the Cone!

I finally am back home in our favorite place! We arrived yesterday and Team Cheri got out bright ...or should I say early this morning for some much needed Beach Therapy!! The beaches, at least, Bowman's and Blind Pass beaches on Sanibel have changed so much since I was last here.  They had a few winter storms that have turned up some amazing treasures! I just had to get down here and try my luck!! Hubby bought me a new water camera, so bear with me through the growing pains of learning to use it .....in the dark!!

Cheri and I walked for a bit this morning before we saw anything  extara special....there were lots of shells, the standards..like Arks, Scallops, Cockles etc....and look what I saw peeking out of the sand in the tidal pool!!

SCORE!!! I finally found that Alphie (Alphabet Cone) I have been searching for!!

Ok...now the rest is just pure therapy.....the weather is amazing....I've been in cold rain in Virginia forever! It was just a bit cool this morning....65, warming up to the lower 80s!! Who can't feel better in those conditions!

We were watching the sun slowly rising...and ran across an area where the water slowly lapped onto the beach, you've got the picture, walking ankle deep just a slow mosey.....Cheri looked down and saw this AMAZING Flat!!

Then she noticed another Alphie....slowly drifting along....

I looked down and saw 2 more.... all together!!! All about the same size....

Before we were done...in a very short distance, we had 11 Alphies!!! Talk about fun!!!

I also found a few Shark's eyes....

a double Jewelbox....

Cheri picked up a big Horse Conch....

which she tossed back into the Gulf....and a nice Lightning Whelk, which I grabbed before she threw back! ;)

I found a few Olives with a perfect tip

and we both found a few Banded tulips and Nutmegs of different sizes...

We continued down the beach, just chatting and enjoying this beautiful morning....

I did find a piece of a Junonia.... (sorry about the focus!)

Here are a few of both our favorites from this morning....

and a better picture of Cheri's amazing Flat Scallop!

So my first day back was a huge success....and gave me lots of needed therapy....I can't wait to get back out there!! 

Stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Girls Trip!

We girls decided to take an adventure to the East Coast, and what fun! 

It's like going to another planet...all the shells are different than anything we get on the West Coast of Florida. I don't know the names, and we can't find a book to look things up, so I might need your help with some IDs on some of these! The first thing I always notice is the beautiful water! It's that tropical turquoise color...and very clear!

Unfortunately most of the beach was covered in seaweed....but we don't give up easily!

We found an area on the other side of that jetty that had less seaweed to start our search...
Cheri and I started finding Limpets right away...they are very different than the ones we normally find...The ones on the top are called False Limpets...

The ones on the bottom are like our Keyhole limpets, just much more colorful....

Jodi and Cheri hit the jackpot with Nerites....
Here are a few of Cheri's... I believe they are called a four-tooth or bleeding tooth Nerite... 

Jodi hit the jackpot with a bunch of them! I believe most of these are Checkered Nerite...

I even found some live ones on the rocks along the jetty...

Most of the shells we found were minis...and we will be researching them... Jodi got a bucket full of Frond Oysters, Limpets, worm shells, coral of all sizes, coffee bean trivia and all kinds of treasures!

The find of the day was a FREAK Scotch Bonnet that Cheri Found...

We continued searching for minis....but I needed to stretch out a bit so I went for a walk down the beach....boy did I have fun! I found lots of beautifully colored Thorny Oysters...

I found a teaser piece of a Lions Paw and a baby thorny!

and there were so many pieces of Flat Scallops....they looked huge and so colorful! I so wanted to find a whole one....

...and I did!!

Can you believe the size of this? Most of the ones you find at Sanibel are smaller!
I also found a Flamingo Tongue! I had one that Cheri had given me from our trip last year....but this time I found one myself!!

I also found this strange oyster kind of thing....I didn't keep it, but had to take some pics! I think it is a Leafy Jewelbox pair....kinda wish I had kept it!!

I believe this is an Operculum (door) of a Milkmoon Snail...it was beautiful...kind of pearly....

and check out this beautiful neon orange Scaly Scallop!

My little walk was proving to be quite an adventure in itself!
While I was gone...Jodi continued to find more minis...and some really cool coral pieces!

 She also found a Bolingi Olive, 3 small cones..Carrot Cones(?) and a Cowrie (?) 

Cheri found several small Rose Murex...

and so many other minis....and some coral.  I believe the two long shells below the Bonnet are called Hexagonal Murex...

I picked up this little guy...not sure what it is...maybe a baby Triton of some sort??

It was an awesome day and so interesting! With lots of color!!

I was fascinated by the different colors and kinds of Limpets!

I found several small Cones too...

and of course, I couldn't pass up the coral!

or the colorful Flat...pieces and that Huge Frond Oyster....(left)

I spilled my box...and couldn't resist this photo opportunity...looks kinda cool, right?!

I need to be more creative with my shell pictures...like Cheri and her flip-flop! I'll work on that! 

Well these awesome trips are over, Jodi heads home tomorrow, and I leave in a couple of days. So sad to see it come to an end, but we will be doing it again! We all talk daily as we are Admins for a facebook page...but we don't get together very often...and what fun we had, I love these ladies! 

l to r: Jodi, This Cheri, Cindy and the other Cheri!

Stay Tuned! Hopefully I will have another post...or two, soon!

::Shelllady Hugs::