The Essential Beachcomber

During the International Coastal Clean-up on Sept. 15, dead bait fish littered the shoreline of Englewood Beach. The algae bloom commonly called red tide by coastal Floridans is always present some where out in the Gulf or Atlantic waters.  The microscopic single celled algae called  Gymnodinium breve  (pronounced, "Jim-no-din-ee-um-bre-vay")   just hangs out dormant on the ocean bottom. Why and when the algae multiply  or "bloom" is still undetermined but most scientists agree that excess nutrients - from artificial fertilizers to natural organic decay - play a role because the nutrients allow the algae to live and reproduce. Many scientists also believe ocean currents play an important role in bloom formation by concentrating large amounts of red tide in certain areas. Blooms have been found both far offshore and in coastal bays and estuaries. The last major red tide bloom in Southwest Florida started in early 2005 and did not sub...

                Beach Rules Wake up smiling! Flip Flops are mandatory. Feel the breeze * Wear sunscreen * Take long walks Nap often. Soak up the sun * Make a splash * Hang up your towel Watch the sunrise. Look for seashells - duh! Ride the waves * Kick back * Build sand castles Be grateful for this day! For more beachy moments & thoughts visit my Pinterest board  Pinterest Board - Lead Me To the Beach.

If it wasn't for my iPhone I would have missed an opportunity to  immortalize my Mom with the Bieber. One tell-tale sign that you are a blogger is when you show up to a gathering of friends or family with a camera in tow, they all go scurrying for cover.  Gosh, what do they think?  I have nothing better to blog about on the world wide web than  embarrassing   pictures and  anecdotes of them? Really?  I'll admit, I've dug from that ditch a few times when my creative juices were running dry or nothing was happening at the beach except a few chunks of sea pork washing in on the wrack line.  That's what boundaries are for.  And I've made some.  With them.   I actually have stopped carrying my digital camera to the beach.  I found I was missing the moment trying to capture it on camera.  I needed to step back and breathe some salty air and take it all in again.  But wait.... the amazing photo op is in ...

Did you know that according to Keep America Beautiful, Inc. cigarette products comprise 38% of all roadside litter?  The same people that would never consider tossing trash such as soda cans, plastic water bottles, or fast food wrappers out of their car window do not consider it littering to  flick a cigarette butt to the ground. Over the last 26 years that the International Coastal Clean-up has been documenting and categorizing the trash and litter picked up on it's annual clean-up days more than 53 million cigarette butts have been picked up by volunteers.  This is enough cigarette butts to fill up 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools.  Now if you are a smoker (as I was 25 years ago) please understand I am not in any way wanting to stand in the way of your choice to breathe smoke.  I am simply  asking that once you breathe that smoke - is it asking too much that you would dispose of the cigarette butt properly?  That means throwing the cigarette...

Asking an avid sheller where they found their overflowing bucket of shelling treasures is like asking a  fisherman where he fishes to catch the big ones. The reply to your pointed question is usually answered in a mumbled garbled vague  sort of way. You'll never get specifics and you will definitely get their best poker face.  Most serious shellers will share their favorite shelling spots but don't think for a moment there aren't a few left in the vault for safe-keeping.  A few years back I started seeing some very interesting pictures being posted from the Bonita Springs area on the iLove Shelling Facebook page.   This beach chick was posting pictures of huge horse conchs & stunning alphabet cones, the likes of which I hadn't seen for a while even on Sanibel. She wasn't giving up too many details either but did elude to a tennis court by some beach condo & she always called it "the 10 spot".  So I did what any self-respecting beach combing l...