I can find seashells everywhere on Sanibel... even at the Sanibel Farmers Market! Seriously, all of these veggies were made by Barbara Walling using different seashells. Dont you remember Barb? I filmed her making other shell art creations a few years back and she is still creating such fun shell crafts. Aren't these the cutest veggies you've ever seen? If you want to see this in person, you only have a few more weeks since this market is open seasonally from November through April where Betsy, Jean and Sherrill proudly display it at their booth. You can even find seashell soaps at the market... Honestly, I'm not much of a cook but when I have guests over, its fun to buy local fresh food and mingle with the island peeps like shellers Mary and Jim that I met on one of the iLoveShelling cruises to Cayo Costa. But anyhoooo...back to the shelling on the beach. Here is a sampling of shell treasures I found at Gulfside City Park one morning this weekend. Just after I met …
Duck Clam
Tiny Sea Urchins And Beach Bling At Lighthouse Beach
SEA URCHINS! I haven't seen SEA URCHINS washed up on our shores in quite a while... much less cutie itty bitty ones like this. I found dried tiny ones with spines as well... Normally if SEA URCHINS still have their spines in tact I would assume they were still alive and put them back in the water. But I found these in the highest wrack line at Lighthouse Beach. They had been cast on shore by those rough waves from the high winds last week with the high tide and got caught in the "sea weeds" then left for days to dry out. They look like the gumballs that the Sweetgum trees drop in the winter up north, dont they? LOL I normally don't get so excited to collect PEN SHELLS (since we see them so often on our beaches) but I rarely see perfectly intact baby STIFF PEN SHELLS (on the left of my hand) and SAW TOOTH PENS SHELLS especially with no BARNACLES or SLIPPER SHELLS attached to them. They are so cute! See how thick this wrack line was? Some people in other parts of the world …
Turkey Wings and Rice, a Cone and Candy
Don't get your taste buds all worked up about TURKEY, RICE or CANDY because I'm talking seashells, of course! We found lots of mini "morsels" at the lighthouse over the weekend including these two TURKEY WINGS (the biggest one is only about an inch long) and two TAMPA TURRIDS in the photo above and RICE OLIVES and BABY'S EARS in this next photo. Along with the usual ANGULATE WENTLETRAPS, I found a BROWN BANDED WENTLETRAP too.... .... And some AUGERS and little FIGHTING CONCHS. And to top it all off with some sweet candy, we found two HORSE CONCHS and baby ALPHABET CONE. I met William and Melissa (Jacksonville, FL) filling their shells bags with SCALLOP shells, CONCHS and some MUREXES. I found out this was their first trip to Sanibel so I showed them how to find WENTLETRAPS too.. I met another Shelling Sister Sanibel Stooper on the beach too.... this little cutie Lucy! She was having a ball with this COCKLE shell on the beach with her parents Jeff and …
