Archive for Lace Murex
Happy Shelling Families and Friendships
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When girlfriends get together for a beach vacation, you can feel the sisterhood happiness and excitement all the way down the shore. The “Sistahs” are actually newbie shellers but are definitely not newbies at finding the best treasures life has to offer. Deb, Lizzi, Baba, Becky, Karen, Sharon, Betty, Roxie and Sandy each live in different parts of the world so they have a reunion each year at a new destination … so this year they picked Captiva to “shellebrate” their friendship. They even wanted matching iLoveShelling tee shirts to commemorate the occasion. I feel so honored! Here’s Karen with her cute tee and showing off the best find of the morning. A reeaaally big LACE MUREX…
That’s an exshellent find!
Talk about “exshellent” finds… these guys have been shelling for over 20 years together and know how to find the good stuff in life too. Ian, Brett, Brett’s brother Jeff (who also happens to be Ian’s dad) were also shelling near the Blind Pass bridge on the Sanibel side and as you can tell… a very happy shelling family. Look at those smiles!
They told me they had great luck fishing all day yesterday and today they will be shelling all day and already had great luck this morning. My faves are the amazingly dark LIGHTNING WHELK, huge orange CHESTNUT TURBAN, and of course… the WORMIE! (heehee- they even called it a “wormie” too) And I didn’t even take pictures of the rest of their favorite finds… like the NUTMEG, LACE MUREX, bright orange CALICO SCALLOPS and TURKEY WINGS.
Brett even shared his finds with the “Sistahs”. They were thrilled!
We had a pretty good shell pile to practice the Sanibel Stoop… and the Sit ‘N Sift…
I feel so fortunate to be part of such an amazing community of people brought together by shells. Oh, and sometimes a GREAT BLUE HERON joins in on the family fun too.
Aha! I Finally Found You, Fulgurator Olive!
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Note to Self: Check off “Find a Fulgurator Olive” on my seashell bucket list!
Oh Yaya! After a weekend of chilly north winds, I found my first FULGURATOR OLIVE at Blind Pass.
I found it washing up in a somewhat small shell pile about 100 yards from the jetty rocks on the Captiva side. I saw only a few shells near the jetty but when I looked down the beach further into Captiva I saw several people perfecting the Sanibel Stoop (or I should say the Captiva Crouch) then saw the small pile being formed…
Wow! When I got there, this is what most of the “Stooper’s” shell bags looked like…
Pretty awesome, huh? Karen (the first white shell bag), Lorrie (the red shell bag with all the beautiful SCALLOPS) and Dave were all from Wisconsin so the 50 degree weather didnt bother them a bit. Especially since they were finding such good shells. Oh and Dave, thanks for taking my picture with my treasure too. 
Then I met another Dave (he’s from NJ) scooping up his own treasures…
Take a look at his gorgeous LACE MUREX, FLORIDA CONE and BANDED TULIP. I love the color of the LACE MUREX!
I was watching the shells roll in and snapped this photo of Dave using his “shelling backhoe”. The second I stood up (of course keeping my eyes on the shells), I spotted my FULGURATOR in the corner of my eye but lost it with the next wave. I stood there for less than a minute keeping my eyes on every shell washing up… and there it was again! Snag! Yeeha! I’ve looked for it in this photo several times to see if I could find it but it’s not the right angle. Its in there somewhere…
Karen’s husband Scott returned (to our lucky shell pile) from a walk down the beach…
It must not have been just our shell pile that was “lucky” because Scott found his own luck. Look at those huge SHARKS EYES, his own brown colored LACE MUREX, ALPHABET CONE, BANDED TULIP and WHELKS, CONCHS and LETTERED OLIVES galore…
We moved to Florida because we aren’t big fans of cold weather. But when the north winds bring in shells like this… bring on the cold weather! And bring me more shells like this!
PS- Join Super Sheller Clark and me on an iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa Island on an awesome shelling adventure. The next one is Saturday March 16, 2013! Click on the next image for more info…
Beach Bling Babes
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Now who in their right shelling mind could not think that this little baby LACE MUREX shell is not THE cutest thing that ever washed up at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach? heehee What a cutie petutie!
I even found smaller baby shells in some of the LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CASES that have been washing up this week…
Most of the disks were empty but some of them still had tiny dried shells in them…
One was torn open so we could see the teeny tiny babies. They only look like grains of sand at this point… or honestly they remind of those little bits when eat corn on the cob. Errrr, Okay, I cant really explain that well so let’s move on and get back to the point… they are tiny LIGHTNING WHELKS!
I got to share these little WHELK EGG CHAINS with a couple of gals that came to visit us from Virginia Beach. Kathleen was a good friend of Clark’s over 40 years ago and they haven’t seen each other since. What a hoot to meet Kathleen and her friend Jan and to hear about “the old days” and to catch up on all of our mutual friends while walking the beach…. and to find out they both love shelling!!!
Today, I ran into Roma with a shell bag full of BLING!
I peeked at her “Bling Bag” and saw all of this…
Holy Crab! She loves BEACH BLING as much as I do! She was collecting all of these different CRAB claws and shells for her daughter who makes jewelry out of them. There is a HERMIT CRAB CLAW, STONE CRAB CLAWS, BLUE CRAB CLAWS and some LEOPARD BOX CRAB shells. Ha! Love it!
I found one more piece of cool BEACH BLING.. a MERMAID PURSE! Okay, it’s a SKATE EGG CASE but it sure is more fun to think of it as a MERMAID PURSE, right?
Oh, and I almost forgot to show you my fave shell today… A BROAD PAPER COCKLE. The colors on this sweetie are awwwwwesoooome…
PS- Shellers Unite! There are still a few spots left on the iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa this Sunday the 17th from 9am to noon. Come join me and lots of other spectacsheller folks that love shelling! Call Captiva Cruises to book your shelling spot at 239-472-5300.
For more iLoveShelling Cruise dates and info on the Shellabaloo click on the next image…
Beach Treats
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We have been so fortunate to have had absolutely gorgeous, unseasonably warm weather for weeks on end now. Yes, it’s usually “shorts” weather in SouthWest Florida in January most years but we’ve had “shorts-n-bathing suit” weather here lately. So a walk on the beach ends up turning into a dip in the water to cool off. It’s soooo nice! What could make that sound even better? Shells! There are still shells rolling up at Blind Pass… but it seems like they are on the Sanibel side now. Both Clark and I found the shells in the top photo but I have to admit Clark found the “ALPHIE” and the awesome brown LACE MUREX…
It looked perfectly clean when I got home so I quickly snapped these photos without giving it another thought. Hmmmm. Now I wish I had spent some time to clean it up since the sand shows up so much…. but just look beyond that. It’s beauuuteeeful! We don’t find the brown “LACIES” very often.
We met Lido from Orlando (he’s an actor!) having a great time filling his pockets with some excellent shells…
He found an ALPHABET CONE aaaand a FLORIDA CONE! Not so bad, right? He found that unusual color of CALICO SCALLOP as well…. so I have to admit… I spied it with all of his other shells (FIGHTING CONCHS, WHELKS etc) and liked it so much I’m the one who chose it to put in his picture with his 2 favorites. I get so tickled when I see someone else get so intrigued by the different color variations of those SCALLOPS!
Soul Sister Susan found a COLORFUL MOON shell!
Her favorites of the day were of course the spectacular MOON but she also found a double ROSE PETAL TELLIN too (top right on her hand).
Take a look at this PURPLISH SEMELE that Rosalie from Michigan found.
Not so “purplish”, right?
We find more of these shells up at Cayo Costa but she found this orangish PURPLISH right in front of the Island Inn.
The inside of that shell reminds me of something but I can’t think of what it is…. hmmmmm…… maybe it will come to me soon.
Don’t forget to reserve your spot on a shelling cruise with me! If you missed it on my last post, here’s the info…
These are the dates for the iLoveShelling ShellingAdventure!
- February 17- morning cruise from 9am-12 (Sunday)
- March 16- morning cruise from 9am-12 (Saturday)
- April 13 – Morning cruise from 9am-12 (Saturday)
- May 19- afternoon cruise from 1pm-4 (Sunday)
Call Captiva Cruises for reservations at 239-472-5300 and tell them you want to join the iLoveShelling group on one of these dates!
For more information about reservations CLICK HERE
Yippee! Can you believe it? Tickets are only $50 for this shellacious get together so book soon to save your spot on one of the iLoveShelling ShellingAdventures to Cayo Costa! Come join me!
Blind Pass Changes Again!
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Do you remember that shellacious shell pile at Blind Pass Captiva I showed you on yesterday’s post “As The Seashell Piles Turn“? If those photos of the changes in the beach knocked your socks off yesterday… hold on to your flip flops today. It’s now gone. Wiped clean. Covered with sand. Goodbye shells.
Both yesterday and today, I took these photos at low tide in the morning about the same time. All these changes happened within 24 hours! But the good news is… the shells shifted to the other side of the jetty rocks. Crazy! Look at the change for yourself on this video.
The hide-n-seek seashells couldn’t hide from Lauren and Jesse from Atlanta.
This BANDED TULIP was Jesse’s fave shell along with a few other beauties…
I had to giggle at Rhonda from PA (lots of shellers from PA lately!!) sittin’ ‘n siftin’ in a wet suit while the waves brought the shells to her. It was 45 degrees this morning!!! Seashells or Bust!
Then I heard a voice behind me that said “Shello, Pam!” LOL It was Mike Ryan again. Remember he found that beautiful SEA FAN the other day?
The shore was peppered with LADY-IN-WAITING VENUS CLAMS so he was picking them up and so was I. They aren’t uncommon to find on our beaches but it was amazing to both of us that there were thousands. I don’t know… errr… maybe hundreds… whatever, there were oooodles of them washed up.
My fave of the day was this dark brown LACE MUREX…
This is always a special find since we rarely find this blackish dark brown “LACIE”.
I couldn’t wait to show you the changes today but check in with me again tomorrow because I’m working on the 2012 top 10 iLoveShelling days to finish out the year before we move on to 2013. Wow. Another year is about to begin. It’s gonna be a good one!
Junonia Schmanonia
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Blind Pass from Captiva looking towards Sanibel
Yesterday evening at around 6:30 pm was a nice negative low tide at Blind Pass of -0.2 . Look at all the people shelling on the sand bars all the way across the pass. Of course since Clark has found 2 JUNONIAS in the last couple of weeks (mind you, they aren’t perfect by far- I’m not complaining, just stating facts- ……I sound jealous, don’t I? grrrr- but if you really want to see them click HERE and HERE) I figured there’s no way I’d find one too but there’s always something else interesting to find out there.
No, I didn’t find one of those little JUNONIA buggers (I’m still sounding jealous, aren’t I.) but I was happy to find this sweet FLORIDA CONE right off the bat. I was especially happy when I found this cute family from North Carolina who found over 25 SAND DOLLARS! Lisa Marie called them the SAND DOLLAR whisperers.
Kim, Hannah and Abby with sand dollars
Abby's sand dollars
Speaking of shelling sistah Lisa Marie, here she is with her son Jeff having a great time filling their shell bags with all sorts of goodies…
Jeff and Lisa Marie (NJ)
Jeff found the prettiest LACE MUREX I’ve seen in a long time….
I met a family from Brasil so excited to see live OLIVES and CONCHS but even happier to find empty shells to pluck in their shell bags.
Marisol, Renan and Enzo
Okay, I guess I have to fess up now……. YES! I am a little jealous of Clark’s JUNONIA finding ability. The man’s got the pattern down to find those stupid stinkin’ elusive SCHMANONIAS (yes, I made that word up). Would you believe me if I told you he found another one last night? I probably wouldn’t if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. But, he did. He found it on the Sanibel side down on the edge of the surf way passed the sand bar that sticks out almost to that huge house on the beach. And it’s in so much better shape than last week’s shell.
Really, I still can’t believe it and it’s just getting weird now. LOL Like Julie commented last weekend “Ok, now he’s just showing off! But we love him anyway.” Ha! Look at his face in this picture, he even looks a little embarrassed- like he’s hoping nobody will “booo” him.
Alright, I was green with envy but I can’t help but be happy for him now that I’ve gotten the jealousy off my chest. Another congrats to you Clark! This will only make it sweeter when I find my perfect VOLUTE.
