World Oceans Day My Favorite Beach

I'm joining Shellbelle for World Oceans Day! Come and Celebrate with us!

To celebrate today, many communities, groups, and people are coming together to educate, demonstrate, and show their love for the ocean. I'm going to tell you about my favorite beach!

Belleair Beach is located just below Clearwater. It is a peaceful place, a family beach, with few visitors every time we've been there. We always see something awesome!

We think this may be a whale! I was also thinking manatee, but the way it swam was more whale like. I snapped this pic Saturday!

Early Saturday morning, before anyone hit the beach, we were out there! Hubby went one way, and I went the other. HIS beach walk entailed finding a fresh turtle nest! He reported it to the Turtle Patrol, and they called someone who came in and measured the distance from the ocean to the nest, dug up the nest, counted the eggs, recorded all of this info, covered the eggs, and roped it off!

This is an amazing beach find! I would LOVE to be here when they hatch! Lucky hubby for being the first one to see the nest!

We usually see brown pelicans in Belleair, but they were not in abundance this time, although I did see several crossing Tampa Bay. Ibis, egrets, gulls, and other shore birds were enjoying fish, and small shellfish.

Friday night we had the most beautiful sunset. The Gulf is THE place for sunsets!

The colors are so intense! I love watching the sun drop into the ocean. It's stunning!


One evening right around sunset we walked up the beach. I saw a clump of sand move, and got my camera ready.

I had to turn off my flash and back off a bit!

Isn't he amazing?! I couldn't stop taking pictures of this fighting conch! We left him at the shoreline, to let him decide if he wanted in the water, or back in the sand. It sure was fun to see him!You should never take a live shell...just sayin'... and in some places it is illegal!

Belleair Beach is the perfect beach if you love peace and quiet, and just want to relax, walk the beach, and see glorious sunsets. There aren't any fast food places after you cross the causeway, and very few restaurants. You can go back into town if you want a good place to eat, or fast food. You can have pizza and subs delivered to your room, but we always bring our own food, cook what we want, and not have to get dressed up to go out. I stay at the beach the entire time we are there, and beach comb as much as I can.

We always see incredible sea life here! We have seen sting rays, the "whale ",  numerous pods of dolphins, and so many different shore birds. And now we have seen a live shell here!

These are some of the reasons I love Belleair so much!

Please be respectful of our oceans, and please don't litter. Pick up stray trash, toys, shoes....you'd be amazed at what gets left on the beach sometimes.

I want my grandkids to be able to share the beach experience with their kids...someday.

Happy World Oceans Day!

Love,
Del

Seashore Sunday

Seashell Saturday

Happy Seashell Saturday!

As you read this, I am at my favorite place on Earth, with my favorite person on Earth....
My very best friend, my husband.

We are the perfect mercouple, sea people destined to live life on land. When we get to our favorite place, it's magical... a breath of fresh sea air... like we've come HOME.

On our 10th anniversary, we were at Virginia Beach, sitting with the surf running up over our tails legs, digging down in the sand beside us with our fingers. At the same time, we exclaimed, "I found a shell!"

His shell is the larger, gnarly shell on the left, and mine is the smaller, almost dainty shell on the right. After displaying these shells on a shelf for nearly 30 years, they now have a permanent home in a shadow box.

Along with other special occasion shells that have found a place of honor on our bedroom wall. I made these last year...or the year before.

We have been together, finding shells, and exploring beaches for 30 years.

We have been to some incredible beaches...but aren't they ALL incredible?!

These "in the ferns and tress" pictures don't look very beachy, but surprisingly, we are only about 100 yards from the lighthouse above, looking over the Pacific Ocean.

I have been so very fortunate to spend my life with a partner who loves spending time at the ocean as much as I do.

Today isn't actually our anniversary.... we got married on June 6th.

So, while you are reading this, we are doing some shelling, and relaxing at our favorite place on Earth.

I'll be back next week with some new pictures, and some new shells, and maybe some new tales....
of our adventure at our favorite place...the beach.

Have a Super Shelling Saturday!

Love,
Del

Seeing Stars

My first attempt at painting a starfish....

I wondered if it looked authentic enough.

Shae thought it was real!

Grandpuppy Tanner tried to take a bite out of it! ( I saw him lunging and saved it in the nick of time!)
I don't know about ALL Boxers, but all of ours have eaten MANY starfish. Until I learned to hang them on the wall...if only I knew then what I know now!

This one has a hole in the back that can be used to hang it from.

I didn't realize how much I missed painting. I sure am enjoying it again! I wonder how many different kinds of starfish I can find to paint?

Oh! Did I mention that it's ceramic? Oh, I'm sure you already knew! No foolin' you guys!

Have a beautiful star filled day, and night!

Love,
Del