The Essential Beachcomber

Right before the storm taken on my iPhone The plan was throw a bathing suit on, grab a bottle of water, & my camera then head to the beach for a 6pm low tide.  It's been a long month of July.  First the hubbs was looking a little peaked.  The VA emergency room decided to keep him in the hospital just because he had a little heart attack - go figure.  I put 1,800 miles on my vehicle driving back & forth to the VA hospital which is 3 counties away for 9 days. Next, was a visit from my nephews (3 & 6) so their parents could cruise to Cozumel. GeeGee had not seen her grandsons in a year so it was decided to press on and not cancel.  It was a wonderful visit full of Thomas the Train & Cars 2 videos, swimming in the pool, & trying to figure out what we could beg the kids to eat that wasn't covered in chocolate or shaped like a nugget. So, I am bolting out the door for some much needed beach time to re-calibrate myself.   It was loo...

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not” The good news is rain has arrived in SWFL. There is a huge sucking sound as the parched ground soaks in the late afternoon showers. The trees & landscaping are greening up again.  The grass is green & growing.  The bad news is any outdoor activity has to be accomplished early in the day to avoid the afternoon thunderstorms.  Lightning just takes all the fun out of the beach or open water.  Back to the good news - NW winds & summer storms bring in the shells! I am re-posting a shelling adventure from last summer where I took off for Sanibel without checking the weather forcast.  Duh! I did check the tide chart for the negative low tide but failed to see the tropical depression heading dead-on Sanibel. Kids - do not try this at home. I am a trained shelling ...

Someone asked me  about Hurricane Earl today.  I didn't even know there was a storm out there. I work 50 hours a week. I watch very little tv . Unless they do a weather warning on HGTV I am clueless until my mother heads out to load up on batteries & bottled water.  It's not that I don't care - I guess as a native-born Floridian you become used to the storms. Hurricanes are just what happens in the summer.  You just hope they don't happen to you.  That's why back in July when Tropical Depression # 5 was on top of Sanibel Island I had no idea. I had checked the tide charts not the weather.   I got up at 4am loaded my visiting sister from Tennessee & niece Pookie into the truck and headed south for a day of shelling. Our first stop was  Little Hickory Beach which is southeast of Sanibel Island.  The sky was a tiny bit over cast.  There was a gorgeous rainbow over the beach and we got lots of pictures.  The shel...

I spent part of last Sunday on the beach and it was a great day. As the sun went down the raindrops started falling and didn't stop until today. One friend told me her rain gauge measured 10 inches for one day.  Now we always need the rain. Florida is coming out of a long drought and our aquifer levels are still recovering but it's been raining for 4 days....come on. When I saw the  Sun peak out today around 10 am I grabbed my shell shovel and headed for the beach. It was a full moon last night and it was now low tide - grocery shopping would just have to wait. The sun is trying to peak out As I read all the beachy blogs out there most of the comments express the same theme...how they love to see all the pictures of the shells and the beaches but the longing of wanting to actually be there themselves. It stinks to have to wait for a once a year vacation to get to the beach.   I feel so blissfully blessed to have this beautiful Gulf of Mexico 5 minutes fro...

The sky is gorgeous to the west over the beach Turn head to the right - sky to the west - not so good. Should I stay or should I go...na na na na nana Stay of course. It sprinkled a little but no lightening or thunder. Check out Barney in the middle of the clouds.