The Essential Beachcomber

Be shore of yourself. (Credit:  www.iLoveShelling.com) Come out of your shell  ! (My sister Kelly on Honeymoon Island, Florida) Take time to relax & coast . (New friend Gina with her beach cruiser ala Lily Pulitzer on Englewood Beach, Florida) Avoid pier pressure. Sea life's beauty. Don't get tide down. (Credit:  Mary Engelbriet) Make Waves ! Thank you to  Your True Nature  for this wonderful advice.

It's time to shuck off those sneakers, take off those Tom's, & kick off those flip flops.  Summertime is here and it's time to go barefoot.  Being a Renaissance woman with some redneck inclinations - going barefoot is  a regular event for me. I love the feel of soft grass under my bare feet.  I like the feel of sand between my toes even better.  One of my  shell sistahs has the best of both worlds.  She can kick off her flip flops and head to to her local beach - Barefoot Beach in Bonita Springs, Florida any time she wants. Congratulations Carla on finding your first junonia. (Credit:  Carla Barone)   Barefoot Beach  is located on Bonita Beach  just north of Naples, Florida. (Credit:  Carla Barone) You'd be sporting an ear-to-ear grin too if you'd  have found this rare highly-prized junonia.  My shell sistah Carla from Bonita Springs has just joined the elite club of junonia finders. (Credit:...

It's Raining Shells!  Hallelujah!!  The rain that rolled over Englewood on Wednesday night rattled some pretty shells loose that washed up Thursday afternoon. The turtles have started arriving. The yellow stakes are placed on fresh turtle nests each morning as the  local turtle patrol make their way up the beach looking for recent turtle tracks.  This seemed like a popular spot.   I had a newbie sheller with me.  Green Pea hollered that she had found a "pretty Shell".  She scored a perfect lion's paw. My beach buddy was on the look-out for shark's teeth and had to switch brain grooves to spot shells instead. Our 2 best finds of the afternoon - a juvenile horse conch  & a lion's paw  (3 inches from top to bottom) Manasota Key is the kitchen sink of shelling.  You find lots of shark's teeth, fossils, shells, & beach bling. We chillax'd on a bench to watch the boats sail by. Thinking of singer ...

(Credit:  Royal Palm Marina) The winner of the 2010 Seawall Art Competition at Royal Palm Marina in Englewood, Florida was local artist Diana Davidson.  Her mural will be the only section not painted over for the 2012 contest. I am certain that Englewood has more artists per capita than any other gulf coast town in SWFL. We do have our fair share of doctors, lawyers, teachers,  realtor's, construction guys (who double as fishing guides),  retail workers & restaurant people but most of them are artists in their spare time.  We have an art center ,  an Artists Alliance ,  an artist's retreat .  Englewood abounds in  local shops & galleries that carry the work of area artists. Painting virtuosos will add their creative magic to anything in Englewood that stands still long enough.  If it has aesthetic potential some would-be artist will beautify or decorate it with their imaginative skills.  No bench , outside business ...

There are lots of reasons to go to the beach.  It's not all about beach combing, shelling, & looking for sharks teeth.  There is crystal blue water to immerse yourself into, sugary-white sand to lay on, & birds of all kinds to watch.  And speaking of watching - the people watching is unparalleled at the beach.  Maybe because they have on less clothes than the people-watching at the mall (well, not always).  When I'm not hiking up the beach in search of beachy treasures I can be found relaxing under the shade of my umbrella and checking out the parade of humanity that finds their way to the seashore. Come on.  You know you do it too. Beach Kidz As you make your way on to the beach it is imperative that you scope out the terrain for any Dugger-esque families in the area.  I love kids but on the beach they become a whirling dervish of sand, rocks, & beach toys. They are fun to watch from a distance. Sun Worshipperz No spf 45...

About once a year the moon makes it's closest approach to the earth called the "perigee moon".  Rachel of   Life As I See  It   blog took this foto in her Englewood, Fl backyard. The biggest and brightest full moon of the year paid us a visit last Saturday night.  Our celestial neighbor passed a little closer to Earth than normal sending all of us who are sensitive to gravitational pull into a little tizzy.   Don't we all feel just a tad cuckoo around a full moon?   My dad was a paramedic for 30 years. He was  full of stories of all the crazy things that happened and looney tunes people that showed up during a full moon on his shift. Maternity nurses swear more births happen on a full moon. During my customer service career at a big box home improvement store I can personally vouch that every off-balance person from 20 miles around showed up at the front desk with some outlandish tale of customer service woe on the full moon...

Channeled whelk found on  Anastasia State Park, Florida  after Hurricane Irene. My all-time favorite book is  Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I picked up my first copy for .50 cents at a thrift store 20 years ago.  This modern day classic of wise meditations on the different stages of life - youth & age, love & marriage, solitude, peace, & contentment was penned on the beaches of Captiva back in 1955.  As the wife of a national hero and an  international celebrity Anne Morrow Lindbergh was struggling with all the same issues we as woman (& men) ask ourselves today. How do I reconcile my most deeply personal needs with obligations to family, friends, lovers, and work?   April has been a challenging month for me to say the least.  Starting with my husband's heart attack on April 1st & moving on to my mother's stroke on April 11th (her 75th birthday) the stress of dealing with loved ones in life or death situ...