Archive for Sunsets
Sensational Seashells, Sunshine and Sunsets
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If there is a better souvenir than finding an awesome LIGHTNING WHELK like this to remember a wonderful vacation… I dont know about it.
Therese told me she only saw a tiny bit of the top of this shell and thought it looked interesting enough to start digging around it. Then she realized it was this perfectly empty WHELK! Congratshellations Therese! She and her husband Dan (visiting from Minnesota) had an exshellent afternoon at Blind Pass Captiva under the bridge at low tide filling up their shell bags with WHELKS, CONCHS, OLIVES and one nice piece of a JUNONIA.
She even found one of the biggest CHESTNUT TURBANS I’ve seen in a while too…
Wendy (a local Sanibelian) found a few goodies to take home to make into jewelry…
She also found a SHIVA SHELL (which I didnt even get a picture of – darn!- so CLICK HERE if you want to see one) and this incredible DOUBLE JEWELBOX. It has pieces of CORAL growing on it!
Clark found a few nice shells too but the one I got most excited about was the WHITE CRESTED TELLIN in the top left corner. We have found them more on Cayo Costa but to find one at Blind Pass is pretty rare. The shell in between the two OLIVES is a huge and thick weird shaped JINGLE I thought was interesting too. I love that weird stuff!
You really couldn’t see how big the NUTMEG was in the last photo so I thought I’d show you how big it is in Clark’s hand. It’s shellacious! It measures in at a whopping 48mm… which isn’t like a world record size (Susan H?) but it’s the biggest one we’ve seen in a long time!
I found a regular sized NUTMEG that I thought I’d keep along with a BITTERSWEET, a CALICO CLAM with a cool pattern, and my new faves- the CALICO SCALLOP.
We ended the evening watching another gorgeous sunset over a big pile of Sit ‘N Sift shells on the other side of the jetty rocks at Blind Pass Captiva.
The sky turns a lucious orange right at the horizon when the sun sets over the Gulf Of Mexico.
Then it melts into the water to end another sensational day on the island.
Oh Wait! I did take a short little video right when we first got to Blind Pass at 6pm yesterday. It’s just a little something to show you exactly where we were. This was right before Therese showed me her WHELK! Have a wonderful weekend!
As The Evening Low Tide Turns
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My favorite time to shell is in the warm evenings when the receding low tide seems to expose a mile of undiscovered beach…
Whichever way you walk, you know will be the right way…
When treasures are half buried but you see just enough of a clue to know you’ve found something special…
When there are live creatures trying to camouflage themselves until they can make it back under the sand like this tiny baby SAND DOLLAR…
When the sky glows like a bon fire just before the sun sinks behind the horizon.
There were quite a few shells half buried all along the Lighthouse Beach (like the NUTMEG) but if you walk west on the gulf side this week in the evening you will see oodles of live FIGHTING CONCHS, STARFISH and other amazing creatures… oh and some treasures like the empty LIGHTNING WHELK as well. It’s just a beautiful site to see. I’ve heard that Bowmans Beach and Blind Pass have some great shells right now so if you are around Southwest Florida, you should get out on one of the beaches this afternoon/evening. It’s a site to behold.
And we have a little bit of SHELLEBRATING to do too! The iLoveShelling facebook page now has over 5000 fans! Wahhooo! 5000 shellers who love shelling as much as we do! We are in some exshellent company, my friends. Here’s a little shout out to our 5000th shelling friend, Angela Lucas! Thank you Angela and welcome to the world of iLoveShelling! Here’s Angela and her mermaids!
Little Hickory Sunset Seashells
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On our way back to Sanibel from a day in Naples, we couldn’t resist stopping to see sunset at Little Hickory Beach in Bonita Beach.
Oooooh I’m so glad we did! Not only did we see a gorgeous sunset, but we spotted a shell or two.
Then another!
The further I walked the more I saw!
That’s when I met locals Michael (North Ft Myers) and Cheri (Lehigh) who were collecting some of these gorgeous shells.
Then Michael plucked this awesome ALPHABET CONE out of his shell bag!
Wait! The sun was going down too quickly! We wanted to shell some more after seeing that CONE! Hmmmmm… but low tide would be in the morning. Ha! Yes, you guessed it. Clark and I went back at low tide and found a treasure trove of shells. Weeeee! But I’m so sorry! I’ll have to show you those tomorrow since there is so much to do to get ready for Thanksgiving holiday. FYI- If you are in the area and not having much luck finding shells, it’s only a 40 minute drive from Sanibel (if you don’t get caught up in the traffic on Ft Myers Beach). There’s a gazillion FIGHTING CONCHS! For more info on Little Hickory, check out my other posts HERE.
Dramatic Sanibel Sky Backdrops
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In between afternoon rains and thunderstorms, we have been thrilled with the dramatic skies that make for such extraordinary backdrops for our fabulous finds. When we get chased off the beach from hearing claps of thunder, we move on to another part of the island to see what we can find. Such a pretty ROUGH SCALLOP!
With the backdrop of brighter clouds, I was thrilled to run across this little pocket of shells with an empty FIGHTING CONCH and a gorgeous keeper LIGHTNING WHELK at Bowman’s Beach.
Kathy and John (Texas) must have run into a few nice pockets of shells since they had quite a few nice keepers.
Kathy found one of my faves… that orange CHESTNUT TURBAN. Nice finds yall!
Every time I looked up from shelling, the sky was different. From sunny skies to dark scary clouds…. then a rainbow! There was only a tiny piece showing so I’m happy I didn’t miss it!
But the most dramatic might have been saved for sunset when blue skies push their way back in the picture to show off for one more day.
Seashell Dreams Come True
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While walking the beach on a beautiful tropical island, gorgeous empty seashells wash up to your feet with every wave. Can’t you just picture it? No doubt, this is every sheller’s dream. Ahhhh….
Well, wake up! Because it came true for sisters Jaime and Lauren!
I found Jaime digging with a shovel in this pile of shells just east of Bowman’s Beach…
She was so focused on that pile until I peeked at her tray of shells and let out a big “WOW!”. That sandy ALPHABET CONE was sitting right on top of all of these awesome shells…
These sisters from Virginia arrived for a month’s vacation on Sanibel two days after Tropical Storm Debby blew through. While I was on Lighthouse Beach witnessing the seashell madness from TS Debby’s aftermath, Jaime and Lauren were shellebrating their own dream come true on east Bowman’s Beach. This is what their HORSE CONCHS and LIGHTNING WHELKS looked like before they cleaned them up…
Awesome, right? Okay, maybe I embellished the story a little about the “dream”… these shells didn’t all just roll up at their feet one after another. They had to stay focused and hunt for these treasures for hours and hours. They told me they had every intention of coming to watch the Sanibel parade but couldn’t pull themselves off the beach because they wanted to hunt for more big shells. Ha! They are as shell crazy as we are! Okay, speaking of shell crazy. Jaime and Lauren drove down from Virginia in their little Mini Cooper. Cute! But even cuter was their license plate…
PS- I just have to show you how shell focused Jaime and Lauren were. These are a few shots of the sunset they missed because they did not look up from their shell pile to see this gorgeous site. LOL
Colors Of Sanibel Summer Skies
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Summer skies on Sanibel are fantastic when the storm clouds quickly roll in and out changing the colors in an instant.
I snapped these photos throughout Saturday and Sunday when I saw an extreme color change.
I’m always in awe of Mother Nature’s paint brush.
Storm skies can be so beautiful… until the cracks of thunder make us head for shelter.
Then after the rain dies down and the lightning passes…. chasing the rainbow begins!
But it fades so fast…
But no worries, just when you least expect it, a little piece of hope pops out again.
