The Essential Beachcomber

(Originally posted April 9, 2011)   " So me keep the Sabbath going to Church, I keep it staying at Home - With a bobolink for a Chorister, And an Orchard, for a Dome." ~Emily Dickinson The moon & Orion's Belt to the right I was talking to a fellow fossil hunter on the beach the other day. The conversation had turned toward the existence of God. He confessed to me that he was not religious.  I smiled at him and said "Me neither". I spread my arms out as if to embrace the amazing blue sky we were standing under -  "This is my church" I said.   Now I do have a local church  that I am a member of.  I call them my tribe. My tribe knows me well enough that if I lead a prayer meeting it won't be inside the building. It will be outside under a huge oak tree on our property. I am also prone to prayer walk-abouts.  I have a beach fellowship and our patron saint is St. Sharks Tooth & St. Arbuck's. There is something abo...

  At the southern end of Manasota Key lies Stump Pass State Park.  At high tide most of this beach will go under water. In celebration of the full moon and the minus low tide, I treated myself to a walk out to the end of Stump Pass.  Manasota Key has four public beaches to choose from.  Each beach has it's pros & cons.  The main beach at the roundabout draws the younger crowd . Nothing wrong with that if your thing is dodging Frisbees, volleyballs, & sand kicked up by 16yo's strutting their stuff.  If you are on spring break it is The place to see and be seen. There are several restaurants, tiki bars, and my personal favorite - the Circle K (home of the 69 cent Polar Pop) within walking distance.   I usually speed right past that madness and head for Blind Pass Beach a few miles north. It' s remote location and  free parking are more my speed.    When there is a really low tide, I head to the very southern end of ...

Just off the top of my head I can think of some really good reasons to get up early to watch the sunrise... 1 )   Alone time because the hubby is still sleeping.  2 ) The world is quiet & still.  3 ) An early start gives me more productive time during the day. Yup, I could give you lots of reasons to crawl out of bed for the sunrise. Maybe even millions of reasons. As the thunderstorm rolled across SWFL late last night, I knew I would wake up before dawn to see what had rolled in. No need for an alarm clock or wake up app. Just to sit on the beach and watch it wake up is reason enough.

"Excuse me, do you live here?" I was asked as I stood in the Englewood  Walmart deli line waiting for the discombobulated deli guy to slice my lunch meat for the week.   It could have been the bright aqua blue t-shirt with sand dollars all over the back that I was wearing or maybe it was the hot pink Havaianas flip-flops I was wearing in 55 degree weather - but it was obviously a sure fire bet that I was a local .   Next question - "Do you know where I can get some really good Key Lime Pie?" Really ?  Is a 3 pound seagull fat? This Florida girl knows her way around A key lime pie. Some things to know: ~ Authentic Florida Key Lime pie is yellow not green. ~Real Key Lime pie is topped with whipped cream not mer ing u e but the topping is really a personal preference. ~The filling has to be tart enough to make your lips  pucker up.  This is what an authentic piece of Key Lime Pie should look like with the exception ...

So true! Sign for sale by Country Marketplace. Walking provides an easy & inexpensive way to get fit.  It's good for the body and the soul.  Walking gets the heart pumping, detoxes your lymph system and gets the ole head back into good space.   I've tried walking every day but my schedule is kinda crazy and it just doesn't work out for me.  M y rule of thumb is not to go 2 days in a row without walking at least 2 mile s.  I do tend to get bored walking the same path all the time.  A beach walk is the perfect way to mix things up. We had a rainy day here in SWFL so today was perfect to walk the 1.3 miles out to the end of Stump Pass and back .  It was a light , drizzly rain (for the most part) so I donned my raincoat and got moving. The tide was rising on the very southern end of Stump Pass State Park. At low tide this sand bar is uncovered leaving a nice siesta spot for the birds.  In another hour it will be submerged as the ...

The good news  - there are shells.  The bad news - the red tide makes it impossible to breathe to get to said shells. It is extremely helpful when one is a beach blogger to be able to go to the beach.  Sure, I could blog about a new recipe I made from Pinterest , my latest find at Goodwill or heaven forbid a table scape (mine are the ones with the matching cool whip salad bowls). W e all know you are here for the sand, shells & sharks teeth right?   Well, me too.  The Red Tide algae b loom that has been traveling up and down the SWFL coastline since October 2012 has put a major damper on everyone's beach going.  The 120 mile long floating algae bloom has been causing sneezing, hacking & burning eyes as it meanders back and forth off the Sarasota, Lee & Collier county coastline.   Sadly, it is killing a record number of manatees according to a story by the Associated Press. My beach  blogging has also been curtailed by an in...