The Essential Beachcomber

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...

(Credit:  National Geographic) It is said that one only finds a junonia "once in a blue moon".  Well, tonight a blue moon graces our skies - the last one until July 2015 and there are pictures of 3 junonias found in the after-Isaac-shell-free-for-all out in blogville.  The post-storm shells are rolling in on SWFL.  For a good look at the shell-action run over to Seashells & Salty Air facebook page .  Stephanie hit it big time on Little Hickory with a 4 foot shell pile.  She also found a coveted junonia. Woohoo!! Further north the shell pile at Blind Pass on Sanibel/Captiva has been hopping as well.   My shell Sistah Pam of iLove Shelling has some pictures that will make you green with shell envy. Thanks to Pam & Stephanie for their coverage of the post-storm shelling bonanza.  I'm hoping I'll have some pics of my own to share soon as well. (Credit:  Seashells & Salty Air facebook page)     ...

As a native Floridian, it's possible I've grown a little too accustomed to hurricane season.  It's always better to be safe than sorry so I had a couple extra cases of water & new batteries for the flashlight. Hurricane seasons starts on June 1st.  August & September are the most active time of the season. Some are questioning the wisdom of the RNC for bringing the convention to Tampa during the peak of hurricane season.

Rising like huge exclamation marks on the beach,  the towering Australian Pine trees on the end of Stump Pass State Park   beckon you past the main beach and on to the the beach less traveled. As a non-native species of tree, the park service started eradicating the pines some years back because they emit a chemical that kills all nearby plants and inhibit the growth of new vegetation. The island is now thriving and blooming with native trees, mangroves, & flowering bushes but the landscape near the southern end of Stump Pass is a surreal driftwood sculpture garden of huge fallen trees and their gargantuan root systems.   The entrance to the park is a good base camp for walking the mile out the the southern end. The Weston Wanna B Inn Resort ( see my last post ) where I stayed last week is located a shell's throw from the park & the end is an easy walk from there as well. Stump Pass State Park is a bare bones facility with only a soda machine for refreshm...

You could be here (It's closer than you think)  Find your own little slice of paradise in SWFL. On the small Key of Manasota on Englewood Beach, it's virtually impossible to get lost.  And yet it is blissfully easy to lose yourself on  it's laid-back beaches with seagulls & pelicans flying by. When it comes to choosing a beach resort for my out-of-town vistors to lodge at, I stepped on a pop top & blew out my flip flops a long time ago. I do look for a comfortable place but I like the old-Florida style where the boating-fishing-beach combing lifestyle is embraced and even celebrated.  The Weston's Wanna B Inn Resort sits at the most southern end of Manasota Key right at the entrance to Stump Pass State Park . The resort is a sprawling compound of condo-type apartments, bayside fishing cottages, & gulf-front efficiencies smack dab on the Gulf of Mexico and Lemon Bay.  The new owners are in the process of updating & remodeling their wa...