Pink, blue, purple, yellow, red and orange Coquinas

It’s wild how many colors and patterns of COQUINA shells my friend Celeste and I found last week on Sanibel.

coquina butterfly shell

Combing the beach to look for beautiful treasures is the best place in the world to catch up with a dear friend like Celeste- especially finding COQUINAS as colorful as she is.

Celeste on Sanibel beach

Oh yes, she is very colorful, wild and very talented. She was one of my first friends I met when we moved to Sanibel and she has kept me laughing ever since. She makes clay art that is as colorful as any COQUINA and she makes sealife for most of her pieces. I just have to show off one of her pieces to you… it has SEAHORSES, FISH, OCTOPUSES and even STINGRAYS.  You can see some of her other sealife inspired pieces at ABohemeLife.com .

Celeste art piece Fort Myers A Boheme Life

There was a lot of other wildlife happening on Sanibel this past week (other than hanging out with Celeste- heehee). DOLPHINS were racing up and down near the Sanibel pier.

Sanibel Dolphin pair

I also had another dear friend and wild woman in town… Lizbeth. All in one day on Sanibel, she and her family witnessed SCCF (Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation) count LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE  nest eggs (photo by Lizbeth)…

Sccf volunteers count sea turtle eggs

And… They they witnessed a rescued of two baby LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLES (photo by Lizbeth)…

Sanibel baby loggerhead sea turtles

And then…  she and her sister saw a BOBCAT cross a beach path (photo by Lizbeth) …

Sanibel Bobcat crossing a beach path

Then they saw a mother LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE laying eggs on the beach… and I got to see this one too! This photo is very dark and slightly pink because you can only have a red filtered light on the beach in SEA TURTLE nesting season (May through September) on Sanibel. We wanted to be very careful and respectful  while in the presence of this incredible creature in a moment like this. It’s a memory I will never forget. So cool!

Loggerhead sea turtle laying eggs on Sanibel beach

During daylight hours, SCCF marked the nest and reminded us of the full circle of SEA TURTLE EGGS of the weeks events.
Sanibel Loggerhead Sea turtle nest

Then the rain started. It has been raining and raining for days and it’s hardly stopped. I should record the crickets, frogs and croaking alligators that are loving it. My back yard is filled with water so our yard shells look like they’ve gone back to the ocean… covered with water. It’s actually a beautiful sight with everything so green and lush with the symphony of nature in the background. It’s been a wild week.

Sanibel horse conch in the rain