I had a craving for a STRAWBERRY at Sunday brunch time yesterday so I was unbelievably excited to feast my eyes on a shellicious treat… a DOVE STRAWBERRY COCKLE.

I just wrote that post Frazzled By A Gaggle Of Cockles last week and realized we didn’t have the STRAWBERRY COCKLE in our shell collection so I’ve been searching high and low all week. While visiting with a friend on West Gulf Drive, we walked the beach to find mostly bivalves scattered along the beach so I didn’t even bother looking for the SANIBEL SIX. Thats when I noticed just about every other variety of our COCKLES were exposed at the low tide.

My mouth started watering thinking about finding a STRAWBERRY. It looks so familiar I just couldn’t believe this shell was so elusive. So I looked beyond the PRICKLY, the PAINTED and the GIANT COCKLES… then half buried in the rich, creamy sand I picked out my very own STRAWBERRY COCKLE.

I felt like I found a JUNONIA! … errrrr… Okay, maybe not that excited, but just as excited as maybe a SCOTCH BONNET. Yea, that’s it… like a SCOTCH BONNET.

Have I seen them before and just never gave it a thought to pick it up? Hmmm. I dunno. I know, I know. It’s not like it’s the most gorgeous shell on Sanibel but don’t you ever wonder what you are missing when you have your eyes only set on finding one particular shell day after day? Who knows what else we are missing!

I think life is like a box of chocolate covered STRAWBERRIES, you just never know what you are missing until you’re happy finding something unusual instead of what everybody else is looking for.

LOL Enough of my “life” theories! We all know it’s fun to be competitive and find the biggest and best shell that everybody else is looking for. LOL It’s just fun to learn about and find yet another seashell on our beaches… especially when it looks like a strawberry.