“May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.” - an Irish Blessing

Remember the movie "Grumpy Old Men" where they go ice fishing?  Watching those old guys trudge out on the frozen lake to a little shack to go fishing makes you want to  start shivering.  What kind of nutcase goes fishing in zero degree temperatures? The same kinda of nutcase  enthusiastic person pursuing their passion of shelling that dones mittens, a hooded sweatshirt, winter windbreaker jacket, scarf wrapped around the neck to keep the  hood from filling with 20 degree wind & blowing back and heads out into the night with a flashlight to see what the NW winds blew up on the beach from the  late night low tide.


 It is really cold for SW Florida but I'm not complaining. I don't have to dig my car out before I drive it. Heck, I had to cover up a few plants is all. I haven't even run the heat yet. I love this NW wind that is blowing up shell pile after shell pile on the beaches from Casey Key to the north all the way south to to Stump Pass. The cold weather keeps the beach traffic to a minimum and I get those lovely shell piles almost all to myself. Every so often I'll pass another bundled up sheller on the beach.  We smile the smile only shared by people that don't think it's odd to set their alarm clocks before the sun rises to head to the beach in the freezing cold. It's a minus 0.9 low tide for goodness sakes. I have to fight off the temptation call in sick to work. (Can I speak to the manager on duty....cough cough...this is Karen cough cough....I'm not feeling so good...I'm a little under the weather....  the NW windy, low tide shelling weather)



The video was taken with my iPhone. The wind was blowing sand into my eyes and I had to watch the waves  washing up because I was on my lunch hour and did not want wet shoes.

Beach comber's love the winter winds and here's why

Perfect Whelk

More Lion's Paw chunks to the right

Half of a flat scallop to the left

It just needs a hood & pockets for shells