The Essential Beachcomber

  Happy almost-New Year to all my Shell Sistahs, Brothas and beach combing friends.  After you have written down all your resolutions for the New Year make sure you determine to have some fun in 2013 and get to at least one shell show this year.  It's so much fun to be in a bustling room filled with kindred spirits where the air is filled with excited chatter about the shells we love punctuated with "Look at this", "Did you see that?" & "I could make that".   May your New Year be filled with salt, sand, & shells.  I hope you get to dive with wild abandon into the surf with your clothes on after the treasure you've been searching for.  May you experience the bliss of the sea-sprayed wind blowing against your face and the luminous sunset blinding your eyes with it's beauty. I wish for you in 2013 that all your beachy dreams come true. Jan. 12 - 13, 2013 SPACE COAST SEASHELL ...

2012 Has been an awesome beach combing year.  To follow my shelling jaunts click on any map marker > then click on marker description to see my trip to that location.  I hope you find yourself at one of these spectacular beaches yourself one day soon.

The shopping is done, the presents are wrapped, the strudel & rum cakes are baked - it's all over but the returning.  I love the holidays but Christmas is always a challenge when you are, as I am the caretaker for other people.  The parties, shopping, cooking, baking, wrapping, $$ can all come crashing in on me if I don't watch out.  I've learned to keep it simple and to pick my snowball fights carefully.   Tonight, we'll head to church for our Christmas Eve candlelight service.  Christmas Day will start out with coffee & the Christmas Parade from Disney World.  My alma mater high school band was picked to ma r ch in it this year. Go Dunedin Highlanders!   But sometime on Christmas Day I will make my way to the beach.  Not just to have some bragging material during those Christmas calls from relatives in frosty Ohio and Pennsylvania but to breath in the salt air and walk and reflect.  Maybe I'll find a shell or two.  Mo...

(Credit:  Pandadumpster @ Flickr) This picture looks exactly like the sky we were viewing.   It's the most wonderful time of the year - for viewing the Geminid meteor showers .  In years past the showers have coincided with a bright full moon.  This December the annual event peaks on the new moon insuring a dark background of a sky for optimum observing with the naked eye.  After a few shout-outs on social media I had myself a little Geminid party heading for the beach - the darkest place in our area to observe the cosmic fireworks show.   I suggested any stargazers bundle up because our Florida temperature had taken a serious dip in the mercury. Shortly after sundown we arrived on the beach armed with blankets, pillows, & thermoses of hot chocolate.  We settled in on the cold damp sand with our eyes scoping out the darkening horizon for meteors.  With the help of our smart phones and various sky watching apps, we were able...

A Prayer Tribute to the Victims of The Newtown School Shooting from sharethemessage on GodTube .  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.    2 Corinthians 1:3-4  (NIV) 

I was so happy to see at Hobby Lobby that the need for animal print Christmas items had been filled.  Keeping with my previous post on a low-stress Christmas - I am not freaking out over my technical challenges at home. My Internet & land line have decided to be uncooperative. My techno-geek hubby has done his best but now the big guns are coming out. Hope everyone is enjoying the process of the holidays - shopping, watching Elf & A Christmas Story repeatedly, & totally ignoring the looming end to the Mayan calendar & the fiscal cliff. Like Buddy the Elf says "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear!" or my version "I'm too blessed to be stressed!".  Sent from my iPhone.

There is no holiday of higher expectations - or disappointment when those expectations are not met - than Christmas.  Starting well before Thanksgiving these days,  we are bombarded from all sides with commercials on the television selling the perfect, must-have-or-your-kids-will-need-therapy Christmas gifts.  Home decorating magazines, blogs, and now Pinterest all captivate our fantasies of having a Hallmark-perfect holiday. The perfect table scape, candle-laden-garland-festooned mantle, & hand-crafted-from-re-purposed-whatever ornaments are just a mouse click away.   Gone are the days of a simple  Walton's Mountain Christmas where John Boy and his siblings exchanged a whittled toy out of wood or a handmade baby doll.  Now, we leave our homes on Thanksgiving evening before the second helping of pumpkin pie has had time to digest to go stand in a massive line at the mall to get $10 pajama pants at Old Navy. Oh.  Holy.  Night. Fo...

No Black Friday shopping for me today. I opted for a walk on the beach instead of the mall.  I saw these black skimmers swirling in the sky off Boca Grande today. (probably to stay warm - it was chilly for Florida). After warming up with a thermos full of steaming hot citrus green tea, my friend and I finished off yesterday's leftovers with a turkey, stuffing & Hellman's mayo sandwich.  No good meal would be complete without dessert - pecan &  pumpkin pie.  Nice to have a table with a view. I picked up a rainbow of calico scallops. Check out more of my beachy fotos on Instagram.                                                                     

About a 1/2 mile walk north of the Blind Pass Beach on Manasota Key is a little place I refer to as my Chapel-by-the-Sea.  It's not fancy.  There are no padded pews or air conditioning.  Just bare bones sand, sea and salty wind blowing against my face.  There are no choirs or instruments.  Just the melody of the waves rolling in to shore with an occasional Osprey singing harmony from a nest high in an Australian Pine tree.   The parishioners are feathered and are not paying any attention to a sermon.  They are more concerned with the schools of white fish moving across the surface of the water.  There is no collection plate passed but my shell bucket receives many gifts from the sea. As my thoughts and words of praise & thanksgiving go up, I feel my Heavenly Poppa's love come down and invade my heart in this sacred space.   It was, after all, His invitation for me to join Him and I simply said Yes. ...

WHAT DOES..... This Beach Belle The rocks and these shells  have in common? The lovely beach belle is my niece Pookie .  She is not really a shelling enthusiast but she hangs around alot of people who are.  The shells she finds are collateral damage.  She's not really looking, just along for the ride really.  But she manages to score some pretty nice finds for all her ambivalence towards the hobby of shelling. Pookie spent the day at Honeymoon Island State Park   hanging out with her mom who is a passionate sheller.  She came home with a whole box full of olives, Sunray venus Clams, &  agatized coral .  What looks like ugly rocks are actually full of geode-like crystals when you break them up with a hammer.  Enter GeeGee (my mom - Pookie's grandmother) The shells and agatized coral get cleaned up and sorted.  Of couse someone has to make something.   Ta Da!  Check out t...

Our hearts are with you. Take a moment to pray for peace, comfort, healing & restoration for the 46 families that lost loved ones &  the millions affected by Hurricane Sandy. Early morning full moon over Blind Pass on 10.29.12 Jackets - check. Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches - check. 230 lumen's LED flashlight - check. My alarm went off (well cathedral bells went bong - bong - bong - bong from my iPhone) at 3am crazy early Monday morning.  The truck had been packed the night before so it was just a matter of brushing my teeth, grabbing a coffee for the road and pointing the truck south for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Sanibel.  Winds from the storm, a full moon  & a 6 am low tide were too much to resist.  The Weather Channel had forecast the winds to die down overnight from 25-30 mph to 10-15 mph.  That weatherman was a tad too optimistic. As Pookie & I drove across the Sanibel Causeway we were awestruck at t...

Warm Mineral Springs in North Port, Florida Swimming holes and "mudding" are not just a redneck endeavor in the city of North Port.   At the spa of Warm Mineral Springs those two things have nothing to do with rope swings or four-wheel drive monster trucks and more to do with mud baths and water yoga. You are already forgiven if you don't recognize the name "North Port". Located in the southern most part of Sarasota County, North Port is ranked #7 for the fastest growing city in Florida.  Warm Mineral Springs is an annexed portion of the city that is home to an ancient artisan spring that boasts of healing properties akin to the fountain of youth.  The spring has long been a popular tourist attraction especially with Eastern Europeans who have made the area surrounding Warm Mineral Springs and North Port their new home.  This ain't no Wet & Wild attraction. There is a gift store, organic cafe, & Spa in the complex but the spring is for the...

The shell trees are doing just fine on Stump Pass. On Friday afternoon I walked the mile out to the end of Stump Pass to see about the red tide.  It was a beautiful beach day but looks can be deceiving.  I was coughing the red tide hacking cough that tickles the back of your throat. Although there were no new fish washed up on the shore, the wrack line is filled with sun-dried fish of all sorts and sizes.  I also saw a few dead seagulls on the sand.  The highest onshore concentrations of the red tide are at Blind Pass Beach (not Sanibel) on Manasota Key. That's about 3 miles north up the coast from Stump Pass. The clean-up looks good but it ain't over yet.  For the most current info  go to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission website. Manasota Key is at the southern most boundry of Sarasota County. In between coughing, I did manage to pick up a few goodies.  Lots of sharks teeth out there. Oh how I love surprises!!...