The Essential Beachcomber

Every SWFL surfer lives for stormy days & high surf advisories. Just another day in paradise.  Tropical Storm Debby is rolling through SWFL bringing tornado warnings & high surf advisories.  Warnings like that are Beach Boy music to the ears of every beach comber & surfer in the vicinity. It's still a little too rough for the shells to roll in.  Low tide was at 11:11am & the storm surge had pushed the tide line past the turtle nests and up to the sand dune embankment.  The south  winds were gusting to about 30 mph with the waves reaching the 6-10 foot range. One of my shell sistahs calls these tropical storms "shell showers". I'll keep you posted. Just another day in paradise - welcome Tropical Storm Debby. Blind Pass Beach on Manasota Key was packed  with surfers and their entourages. No life guard - No board - no problem.  There's always body surfing. This turtle nest will hopefully hold on.

As I was looking out the window this morning watching the rain fall and mentally scrounging for something blog-worthy to share, my mind kept traveling backwards over the last year.  Life as I knew it came to a screeching halt last July when my dear hubby had his first heart attack.  I had recently left my job of six years with the plan of pursuing a change of career.  In April  hubby had a second heart attack followed by my mom (who lives with me) having a stroke ten days later.  My new career (it seems) is home health care.  My days are now full of pill bottles, doctors appointments, & making edible food for people that can't eat salt, sugar, or red meat. Just when I think I have nothing else to give the Lord quietly reminds me - I'll be with you.   My questions has changed from "Why" to "Who".  God, who do you want to be for me right now that you couldn't be any other time? When I have needed strength - Heavenly Father has grab...

If you hear voices and they tell you to "go to Sanibel" - listen to them. The best time to go shelling (if you are not concerned as to whether you find any good shells or not) is "whenever you feel the urge'.  Now, I have to watch my shelling urges as they they break out at some really inconvenient times. Many times I have left work on my lunch break only to return an hour later with soggy squeaking shoes from an impromptu trip to the local beach. More than once my hubby has awoken to a note on his beside table explaining my whereabouts (or lack of) due to a full moon and  an extra low 3am tide.  From my home base in Englewood, Florida, I can easily get to the beaches of Manasota Key, Boca Grande, & Sarasota in 20 minutes.  Sanibel - not so much. It is an hour (depending on traffic and highway construction) south on I-75 to Exit 121 and then another 30 minutes to the toll booth that leads across the causeway to the shelling mother ship.  The shellin...

Here in the south (SWFL to be exact) we have long had a secret for well being that is just now starting to leak out across the rest of the globe. With health conscious companies marketing homeopathic-this and all-natural-that all promising to improve your health and give you a sense of well-being we southerners have had the cure for hundreds of years. Are you having one of "those" days?  You know the kind of day.  It feels like you are slogging through jello.  You are just in a funk with no creative energy or forward inertia. Stuff happens and it is happening to you.  The southern elixir that puts a drawl in your speech and pep in your step is Sweet Tea or just tea as we call it.  The sugar is just a given. Case in point - my niece Pookie.  After a crappy day at work facing all the drama that a typical 25 yo woman has to face in an 8 hour time span she heads for some solace at my house where the washer and dryer are free and the sympathy regarding lif...

I just have to chuckle when I hear people commiserating  about "the good ole days" before computers took over the world.  These poor disillusioned folks  lament how people these days can not do anything without a computer, cell phone, or some device attached to our bodies.  At TEB household we  have tossed our cassette tapes & land line and embraced the 21st Century with a huge cyber bear hug.  The best thing about the world wide web is having a bottomless pit of information at my fingertip (the one I'm typing on my iPhone with).  No longer do I have to call 3 or 4 friends to find out who the missing  Spice Girl is or try to remember obscure song lyrics on my own.  I can google anything, anybody, anywhere, anytime.  My mom even uses me to goggle crossword clues when she is stuck.  Because of Facebook I can keep up with an entire global neighborhood of friends and family.  In almost real time I can view what they are u...

Be shore of yourself. (Credit:  www.iLoveShelling.com) Come out of your shell  ! (My sister Kelly on Honeymoon Island, Florida) Take time to relax & coast . (New friend Gina with her beach cruiser ala Lily Pulitzer on Englewood Beach, Florida) Avoid pier pressure. Sea life's beauty. Don't get tide down. (Credit:  Mary Engelbriet) Make Waves ! Thank you to  Your True Nature  for this wonderful advice.

It's time to shuck off those sneakers, take off those Tom's, & kick off those flip flops.  Summertime is here and it's time to go barefoot.  Being a Renaissance woman with some redneck inclinations - going barefoot is  a regular event for me. I love the feel of soft grass under my bare feet.  I like the feel of sand between my toes even better.  One of my  shell sistahs has the best of both worlds.  She can kick off her flip flops and head to to her local beach - Barefoot Beach in Bonita Springs, Florida any time she wants. Congratulations Carla on finding your first junonia. (Credit:  Carla Barone)   Barefoot Beach  is located on Bonita Beach  just north of Naples, Florida. (Credit:  Carla Barone) You'd be sporting an ear-to-ear grin too if you'd  have found this rare highly-prized junonia.  My shell sistah Carla from Bonita Springs has just joined the elite club of junonia finders. (Credit:...