Archive for Junonia
i Heart Shelling in February
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I love shelling because it fills my soul with happiness when I find the smallest of shells like this sweet little juvie PEAR WHELK on the beach that I’ve circled in the photo with my big heart. It looked like there was only sand washing up on the inside of the jetty at Blind Pass yesterday…
But I didn’t give up since the day was warm and beautiful and I had a few minutes just to take it all in. I found a nice little shell pile to sift through…
In that small pile, there was a beautiful FIGHTING CONCH. And laying right beside that CONCH was a nice size LETTERED OLIVE. Do you see it?
I sifted a bit more and I found my sweet PEAR WHELK. That’s when I saw Dave and Peg from Cincinnati and he told me he a found his first JUNONIA this week! Wahoo! But he didn’t have it with him. Rasher-frasher! (What cartoon that was from??), I wanted to see it. He was thrilled to show it off so they ran back to their place to get it! Ha! Fantastic! Here they are!
This is Dave’s awesome JUNONIA that he found at this spot in the water right at the trough line. In the last week, I haven’t seen obvious big shell piles anywhere but everybody that has found nice shells has been hunting in the water just like Dave. He said there were only a few shells showing but he kept scooping at that spot and came up with this JUNONIA. Perseverance. Congratshellations!
I love it because it has so much character! If only this shell could tell its story…
Did you notice Peg has a shell in her hand too? She found a FULGURATOR OLIVE!!!! She actually found it a few weeks ago on the other side of the pass when we had the cold snap but since they went back to get Dave’s JUNONIA, she wanted to show me this too. AWESOME!!!!
And within the last month, she found TWO GOLDEN OLIVES as well. Wowza! They have found some spectacsheller treasure in the last month. We had to shellebrate! Since this was yesterday (Tuesday, February 12), I shared my Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras beads with seashells, mermaids, lobsters and flip flops that Linda From Pensacola gave me. Thank you Linda! That’s so sweet! They went to great use since I had a great time sharing them all day long.
So I hope you had a fabulous Fat Tuesday yesterday and will have a marvelous Valentines tomorrow!
Don’t forget to check out the new dates to join us in one of our Shelling Adventures by CLICKING HERE or the next image!
Spotting The Spots of a Junonia
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This JUNONIA didn’t just roll up at Shelling Sister Daina’s feet this week during her vacation on Sanibel Island. Nope, she was out at 10:30 at night with a flashlight walking in knee deep water when she spotted the spots. Brown spots! Hot Diggity Dawg! She found a JUNONIA! Congratshellations! Even though it’s not perfect, it’s beautiful and it almost makes it sweeter when you work so hard to find one and it finally appears. And she found something else on the island that she was excited about…
She found my new SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION FIELD GUIDE in one of the local store! I designed this waterproof shelling ID card made of hard plastic so that you can easily take it to the beach to identify your shells that you find. Some of you avid shellers already know the 45 different Southwest Florida shells I’ve listed on the guide especially if you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time but it’s perfect for kids, regular shellers and just great as a gift because it retails for only $4.99. Here’s what it looks like on both the front and the back…
Okay… I have to fess up. Oh boy. Daina told me she knew about the typo. The typo. Okay, yes, I said TYPO! LOL How did I make a typo???? I looked at it hundreds of times and had about 12 different people proof it. After I printed them all up, I took it in to Mary Beth at Sanibel Seashells on Periwinkle and Fitzhugh and she loved it. Her dad Larry looked at for 4 seconds and said “Nice… but you’ve got a typo”. Whaaahhhh? Noooooo! Yep, the man has got an eye. Ack! Do you see it?
Well, whatcha gonna do… We all had a good laugh about it and I told them if anybody came in to purchase angle wings (45 degree or 90 degree), they knew who sent them. Typo and all, you can find them a quite a few different retail stores in our area. I’ll make a page with links and phone numbers that I will attach later, but for right now here are the local stores you can find them in if you want one…
Ace Hardware Sanibel, Beach Stuff, Book Nook, Jerry’s Foods, Island Inn Sanibel, The Island Store, MacIntosh Books, Pack & Ship, Royal Shell, Sanibel Harbour Marriott, Sanibel Seashells, Suncatchers’ Dreams, Tuttle’s Sea Horse Shop, Whitney’s Bait and Tackle, and Yolo Watersports.
Thanks Daina for showing me your fabulous JUNONIA and the other great shells you found off Middle Gulf Drive.
The Pot Is Sweetened By Seashell Treasures
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The last few days I have returned home with an empty shell bucket. I have so many shells already, I’ve just started only to collect the seashells that are new to me, have unusual colorations or the ones that are hard to find… like the JUNONIA or the CABRITS MUREX to name a few. Since I haven’t been lucky enough to find anything like that lately, I’m still happy when I get to hunt for those awesome treasures because it makes the pot sweeter when I do find them. But wait!
The treasure pot was filled with honey and sugar for Kaitlyn (10) and Matthew (8) this week! They hit the mega lotto with Kaitlyn’s JUNONIA…
AND her brother Matthew with a CABRITS MUREX!!!
Here’s sister Karley, Grandmom Sue, Kaitlyn and Matthew…
Wowee! Congratshellations!!! They said they found them on the Captiva side of Blind Pass under the bridge…right here…
Shelling Sister Peggy and her daughter Laura were finding their own treasures at Blind Pass when they witnessed Kaitlyn’s JUNONIA find and were thrilled for her. That made them bound and determined to find one for themselves too. It’s out there somewhere, girls!
Santa’s Seashell Good List
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We were shellebrating the season on the beach at Blind Pass Captiva today! We must have been on Santa’s “Good” list this year because he gave us the best gifts of all… gifts from the sea. Seashells!
Lots of seashells!
But wait… let me back up because the shells weren’t there all day so let me show you how quickly Mother Nature (maybe Santa too?) can do her/his magic.I arrived at Blind Pass this morning at 8 a.m. bundled in layers of clothes to ward of the 46 degree cold northwest winds. BRRRRR! That’s cold for us! I found a few scattered COCKLES, FLIGHTING CONCHS and PEN SHELLS along the high tide line and pocketed three beautiful shells… a KNOBLESS FIGHTING CONCH, GIANT BITTERSWEET and a funky orange CALICO SCALLOP…
There was nothing to speak of along the jetty rocks so I thought I’d amuse myself by waving to say hello to the camera since my shadow was the only thing in the picture (I know, I’m a dweeb). See? No real shells to write home about…
So I left around 9 a.m. (played tennis) and came back around 12:45 to find all of these shells piled up! In that short time span, thousands of shells rolled up along side those jetty rocks!
Probably only an hour after I left, Lucky lady Glenda from England plucked the king of shells, a JUNONIA, right out of all those shells! And you won’t believe it… her husband Richard found a rare QUEEN HELMET!
So you know what that means… the “KING” and “QUEEN” will find their way back to England soon. LOL Congratshellations, to the royal couple!
As soon as I walked onto that shell pile, Dawn snagged an ALPHABET CONE out of an incoming wave…
Then she showed me 3 HORSE CONCHS she just collected as well. Candy!!!
Michelle and Eric were on Santa’s Good list too!
I took this photo when I first saw them and I know they bucketed a few more ALPHIES, HORSIES and BITTERSWEETS but take a look at her JUNONIA (“cob”), part of a LION’S PAW and that gorgeous FLAT SCALLOP (lots of those found today!)…
I don’t think there is anything more fun than witnessing a pile of seashells being formed on the beach. It is mind boggling that within 4 hours, thousands of treasures can be washed up by the waves of the Gulf Of Mexico. More photos coming soon!
Christmas JUNO-HO-HO-HO-NIA
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If you happen to stop by the Sanibel Captiva Chamber Of Commerce on your way on the island, say “Congratshellations!” to Anne at the welcome counter. She found her first JUNONIA this week!!!
Wow! It’s so pretty! Like Mimi, this is an early Christmas gift of the sea too.
She told me she found it rolling in the surf at Blind Pass Sanibel half way from the pass to the newly exposed seawall so I of course I high tailed it down there to see the beach. Remember the erosion I photographed last month? Well, the seawall is still exposed but not as much. It’s filling back in slowly but surely.
By the time I got there, I only saw a few shell lines but I could see there were shells still rolling in the surf. After I took this next photo, I got to thinking that in probably six months, this whole wall will be buried again and we might not see for years to come. The power of Mother Nature.
The other side of the pass (Blind Pass Captiva) is starting to show signs of smaller shells rolling in. I doubt that little sand cliff will be there very long since we have some good west winds predicted to for this weekend. Yippee! I’m hoping the bigger shells will be coming in soon!
I sifted through some of these shells in this new pile…
And I found a COMB BITTERSWEET!
I don’t think I’ve ever taken a photo of this shell before. Hmmm. I’m really not sure I’ve found one before either but I don’t think that it is a rare find here. So I looked through my collection but didn’t find one. Okay, honestly, I’m really not that organized but still… I didn’t see a COMB BITTERSWEET in all the shells I pawed through in my garage buckets.
It’s a little “nibbled” on the one side but now I have it in my “collection”. Ha!
Okay let’s get back to the real important things…. Anne’s JUNONIA! Since Santa gave her an early Christmas gift like the SEAHORSE (I painted with a Santa hat) Mimi received, I had to give Anne’s JUNONIA the same special treatment! A JUNO-HO-HO-HO-NIA!
The Gulf That Keeps On Giving
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Michelle from New Hampshire got a gorgeous gift from the gulf….. a JUNONIA! She said “I still can’t believe I found one! I was just walking along in ankle deep water that had already be searched by lots of shellers. My children were having fun exploring the tidal pools and there it was!“. Wowee! It’s huge!
There were shells scattered everywhere on Gulf Side City Park beach where Michelle found her JUNONIA…
Most of the shells were live FIGHTING CONCHS but Cheryl (Ohio) was having a great time filling up her pink shell bag with empty shells…
She found all sorts of great shells!
Her favorites were these two KINGS CROWNS…
These two cutie shellers Matilda and her brother Anton came to Sanibel all the way from Sweden to fill their buckets with goodies. Matilda is holding a beautiful ALPHABET CONE and Anton is showing off a nice bright orange HORSE CONCH.
Bob (who found a LIONS PAW last year) and Dee (Ft Myers) were finding SEA WHIPS and BEACH BLING…
And a fabulous FLORIDA CONE along with a fantastic assortment of all types of seashells…
And they found dried out MILLIPEDE STARFISH.
The Gulf Of Mexico just keeps on giving us gifts of the sea.
