The Essential Beachcomber

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...

Hey Everyone,  Just wanted to wave hello & update you on my hubby.  He is doing well after his 2nd heart attack.  A stent has given him new energy.  It's amazing how good you feel when you are getting some oxygen to the brain.  Two days after hubby came home from the hospital  my mom who lives with me had a stroke.  I knew she was freaked out about turning 75 but come on.  As she was opening some birthday cards her glasses fell from her face & she was unable to talk. The ambulance took her straight to a local hospital that has a stroke trauma center.  Mom got the Tpa drug within 1 1/2 of her stroke & the recover has been astounding. So mom is home recovering in one room - hubby in the other. Don't worry about me, I am fine.  Really fine, I'm doing fine.  I know we all find ourselves in seasons of life like this where we are caring for others and it gets hectic. For me, I am taking one day at a time & trusting the...

My Miracle Man & Me. My beach combing exploits have been temporarily  interrupted by my Hubby who decided to have a heart attack on Saturday night. I was watching some tv in the living room when I heard him call my name from the bedroom.  "Oh for goodness sake, what does he want now" I thought to myself & continued to watch tv.  After a minute or so my conscience elbowed me hard & I walked back to see what he needed.  I found him gripping the sink & in extreme pain from his jaw to his chest. We live 3 minutes from a hospital so I hustled him outside to the car & off we bolted off to the ER.  That was Saturday night & he came home Tuesday afternoon with a stint in his LAD.  The doctor assured me someone was looking out for Hubby because blockage in that artery is usually non-negotiable. I asked the doctor "Isn't that artery called the Widow Maker?".  "Yes" he grinned "But I don't as a rule use that term with the sp...

It's the dimming of the day. Work is done. Dinner has been consumed. This is the alternative to Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy on Manasota Key. The cameras come out.  No good  Florida vacation photo album is complete without a token sunset picture. Sunset watchers assume the position. The cares of the day fade away with the sun slowly sinking to the west. There are always those who can multi-task.   A big shell pile is hard to resist even in the glowing light of the fading sun. Sunsets are meant to be shared. If you missed the sunset today - good news!  There is another one scheduled for tomorrow evening .

(Credit: www.forthoseabouttoshop.ca) One of the side benefits of blogging are the actual bloggers themselves.  The Blogsphere is a huge global cyber-community.  Due to the content one's blog you tend to draw & be drawn to others with similar interests and ideas.  Nothing wrong with that.  Over time,  after exchanging comments & emails a personality & heart starts to emerge from the online nom de plume.   You meet the DH & find all about the DD/DS.  We brag about  grand kids and post about birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries.  We watch each others creative juices flow (or not) as we post our hand-made creations and various art. We take each other on our vacations and other wanderings. Every so often we actually get to meet face-to-face. I've never met a blogger I didn't like & I've  met a bunch.                             ...

Artist Mary Stewart's Fruit Ladies I got a massive giggle out of the article below.  The author is anonymous but I feel I could have written it because it sums up my feelings about looking for a new swim suit perfectly. Buying Swimwear I have just been through the annual pilgrimage of torture and humiliation known as buying a bathing costume. When I was a child in the 1950s the bathing costume for a woman with a mature figure was designed for a woman with a mature figure: boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a darn good job. Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the pre-pubescent girl with a figure chipped from marble. The mature woman has a choice. She can either front up at the maternity department and try on a floral costume with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus that escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every run of the mill department store trying...

As a beach comber, I have developed a pretty good eye for shells.  Even off the beach I can spot them a mile away.  While looking at a home for sale with a friend I caught the color of something beachy through a severely overgrown avocado tree that screened of the neighbor's yard.  As I stuck my head through to the other side to take a closer look I was greeted with a friendly "Hey there".  (So much for privacy on your carport) Sitting outside enjoying an afternoon beverage were a husband & wife snowbird couple who live in Englewood six months of the year and Canada the other six months.  They are heading back home after Easter.   The fruit of their daily beach walk labors was displayed on every table surface of their carport.  They kindly let me examine their shelling treasures more closely.  After chit chatting for a few minutes the lady runs inside to get a pretty shell that she couldn't identify.  Yup, I saw this one coming.  S...

The Marco Island Shell Club  held it's annual Shell Show on March  8 - 10 on Marco Island, Florida. I am a super resourceful person.  Whenever  possible I like to kill two birds with one stone.  I try to save gas by combining shopping trips instead of going to the store for just one item on sale.  If I find a shirt or pair of pants  that actually fit well & in a color I like I will buy several and stash them for later use.  So you can imagine my ingenious sensibilities going on overdrive when I figured out I could combine a shelling trip to Marco Island with the Marco Island Shell fair.  I had passed on the 75th Annual Sanibel Shell Show a few weeks back.  The Sanibel Stoop Guinness World Book of Records had been enough shellabrating for me.  I also wanted to check out a new shell show that I had never been to before.  Marco Island is a 2 hour drive south from my home base camp.  The public beach access on M...