The Essential Beachcomber

The tide was rising at Blind Pass and it was getting a little too crowded for my shelling sensibilities so Jenonia, Pookie, & myself moved south to Lighthouse Beach.  Lighthouse Beach is on the opposite end of Sanibel Island from Blind Pass.  It's about a 15 minute drive.       Jenonia was happy to hold her first sea star or starfish.  Of course, the sea star went back in the water where we found him. After taking my advice to look on the wrack line for what looks like coffee grounds - Jenonia got the eye for Wentletraps immediately.  Lighthouse Beach is loaded with photo opportunities.  We arrived to Little Hickory beach access #10 to find the shoreline littered with fighting conchs left behind by the receding low tide. The fighting conchs were all alive.  They hunker down until the rising tide washes them back to the water. This little spit of sa...

The day breaks revealing a busy morning of shelling at Blind Pass on Sanibel/Captiva. Can you remember being a kid and playing a game of  hide & go seek?  The best hiding place was always a closet.  As you sat in the closet being quiet and trying not to be found did you ever try to see your hand in front of your face?  That is dark.  If you are at Blind Pass on Sanibel/Captiva at 5am it's called "pitch black".  The 5:45am lowest minus tide of 2013 coincided with a new moon which means no moon - no light at all except for the hundred's of thousands of incandescent stars glowing across the sky.  As we stood in the empty parking lot of Turner Beach g earing up for our shelling expedition on the beach below our eyes slow ly became accustomed to the early morning pre-dawn sky and the outlines of shell pil es started coming into view .   My strategy for being the first one on the early morning  beach is to do a quick scan the...

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...

Well, my vacation is winding down. Whew!I've had such a full schedule. I went to a conference in Sarasota on vacation day #1 & 2. Days 3-7 were in Sanibel doing a little power shelling with blogger friends. The Hubbs & I drove up to Tampa on day #8 to meet family for a wonderful dinner at International Mall.  As I was planning my time off on my scheduling calender I noticed someone had penciled herself in for my only remaining day.  That would be my niece Pookie who is also one of my best garage sale-ing buddies. She had an entire day planned starting at 7:30 am where we would leave for the biggest community garage sale of the year - Sawgrass Lakes in Venice, Florida. There was also time scheduled for Thai food so I sharpied her in - it's a go. The early bird catches the worm - and also waits in line to get in Where to begin?  Pookie chose a left-flank attack House after house looked just like this The line of cars to get into the development was ab...