Savenger Hunt Sunday . . .

. . . the Beach version, of course!

I just love when it works out this way and you get all the prompts

by mid-week, especially when it happens by accident you planned it that way (wink, wink)

[ beneath your feet ]

I love the beach, and I love these coquina clams...watching them migrate the beach and feeling

them beneath my feet as they bury themselves.

[ capturing movement ]

It really is a good thing for digital cameras or I would be broke taking photos of birds in flight. Somehow I

managed to get this Sanderling in focus while trying to pan and get some blur in the rest of the photo. I see some practice in my future.

[ texture ]

Empty goose barnacles on a large tree limb picked clean by the birds. Lately there have been some very

large trees washing up on shore?

[ face your fears ]

Well, I kinda feel like I'm cheating on this one . . . can't say I had much fear and maybe because

my curiosity got the best of me first. When I first spotted these coming out of the water from my chair

I had no idea what it was so I went to investigate . . . it was in less than a foot of water. . .

 . . . and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a stingray! He was about two foot wide and he wasn't

alone, there were quite a few of them that had come to the shoreline to feed. It was my first stingray sighting

in the 4 years that we have lived here and I might have been a wee bit excited! ; )

(Some of you might be excited that I didn't share again, my spider pic from Friday, you are welcome! ha)

[ currently ]

Currently, this is my view as I enter down the road to access the beach . . . ahhh.

[ Your Sunday Best ]

Have a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend and be sure to check out all the other participants!

Love, Kim

XO

  

Foto Friday - Life really is a beach

I love everything about the beach,
from the salty smell of the air and sand beneath my toes,  to wind blown hair

and that beautiful roar of the ocean where worries are washed away with the tide.

I can't seem to get enough of it and it never, never ceases to amaze me!

Three years ago on August 3rd we moved to the Texas gulf coast and the very first time we

crossed the causeway to get to the island (of Galveston) there was a thrill of anticipation and to watch

the pelicans soaring next to us took my breath away . . . three years later that hasn't changed.

Every minute I spend here is a new adventure with a personality of its own and memories

are made that will last a lifetime. . .
it's the place that when you are still enough you can hear the whispers of your own soul
where time seems to stand still yet everything still moves with its own rhythm. . .
yes, paradise does exist, it's here and it's my reality
. . .  it's where the sun rises and the beach waits.


My heart is full of longing for the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.

- Henry Watsworth Longfellow

So this week I didn't experiment with my camera and none of these are ultra spectacular, but
this represents my typical day at the beach and part of who I am.
It's where you find me celebrating the first day of the last year in half a century-mine!
(wait, did I just tell you my age)

You never have to wonder which way the wind blows, it possesses its own weather vane(s).

  The coquina clams - I could watch them for hours migrating up and down the beach!!

And a cute little hermit crab - can you see his eyes sticking out, just waiting for me to leave?

Then I came across this abandoned basket of beach toys, just begging to be photographed.

(Actually, they were begging to be played with but I resisted)

A beautiful Royal Tern that you can usuallly hear before you can see it!

It's shrimping season and they've been getting quite close to the shoreline, which is where I'm standing.

Now, doesn't this umbrella just make you happy!

He doesn't have along beak for nothin'!

On my walk I came across a surfing camp and this was their first day learning - this little girl was such a natural! 

And then as I came back from my walk I found these two getting their gear ready. I told them it looked like they had quite a setup and asked them what they were going to try to catch. Really? Shark? You're going to go out a mile in those and try to catch 5' sharks? Rich, in the picture above, was happy to answer all my questions and showed me the heavy line and hook he uses to catch such a fish. Since they catch and release these big guys they take cameras with them to document it and go back to post it on their Texas kayak fisherman website. So, curious as I am I had to go check it out and you should too - it will only take a second I promise - just scroll down till you see the pictures (click here). I'll wait right here . . . I love how Mike makes light of his 40" shark catch. That's just too much shark to be thrashing by my feet in a kayak!!

Yep, this was my catch! You're impressed, admit it - haha - Actually I caught these with a 10" child's net and they are quite tricky to get as they are very fast! No worries, I released them!

In one of my previous posts I talked about the sargassum (seaweed) that we get from May until

August. Well, the seaweed is a crucial habitat to a wide variety of marine life providing shelter and food.

This is a sargassum shrimp - the smaller ones tend to be more solid colored, even transparent and as they get bigger they use color patterns to camouflage themselves. They are so good at hiding themselves amongst

the plants that in order to find them you have to shake the seaweed. In fact, I have seen the seagulls do the same - they are nuts for these things! Aren't they cute!!

I found this sargassum crab in the seaweed too. They might have small claws, but they sure can pinch!

And my favorite of all, the brown pelican, ahhhh! There is just nothing like watching pelicans

gracefully soar across the sky.

 
To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truths lie undiscovered before me.
- Isaac Newton

A few weeks ago, I received one of the nicest compliments when a child about 11 years old asked me
what I wanted to be when I grew up!! (I think it was the pig tails) The truth is, I told him I'm not sure!!
Because all I know, is the day that I cease to be amazed by the wonders of this world
and forget the child inside me will be the day I grew up too much!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!!

Love, Kim
XO

P.S. You might be interested in this post: Reflection  . . . and the road to acceptance, a little bit about
my journey to loving where I am at.

See what everyone else has been up to this week at the hollie rogue

and here for more Sundays in my city  at unkown mami

  

and sweet shot Tuesdays with my3boybarians



Foto Friday - A treasure on the beach . . .

If you haven't noticed already, then I have to confess . . . yes, I am a nature nerd.

I have loved nature ever since I was old enough to remember,

playing with crawdads in the creek behind my house, and growing maple trees from the helicopter seeds.

That desire to be close to nature has only grown stronger as I get older,  and there is magnificent beauty in all of it. But the beauty isn't just in the seeing of it, as much as how it all works together 

especially when the hand of man does not disrupt it.


Develop an interest in life as you see it;
the people, things, literature, music -
the world is rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

- Henry Miller


Most of the treasures I find are not riches like money or jewels that are hoarded, but rather the kind of gems that one holds precious in nature, that are not stored but are priceless.

While at the beach last weekend hundreds of thousands of little treasures were being exposed with the washing of each wave, and I was barely quick enough to get a picture before they disappeared.

These little gems are called coquina clams and are an extremely important part of a healthy beach eco-system, and when the sand and water are clean they will multiply. And multiply the have . . .

 
They are a bivalve mollusk that hangs out in the tidal zones of sandy beaches and are always very active, actually migrating up and down the beach with the tide. When the waves come in and they are exposed they are sometimes carried back by the retreating waves and as the water starts to settle they quickly bury themselves just under the speed of light. Interestingly they bury themselves vertically which sure takes up a lot less of their viable real estate.

You can see that they come in a lot of colors, my favorite being the ones that are striped and I'm kinda
partial to the pink ones too! These guys are filter feeders and because of this are considered an indicator
species and important link in the food webs. They feed on small particles of algae and are in turn fed upon by fish and shorebirds. They even find their way into soups!

In this picture you can see their siphons (one for inhaling food and the other for exhaling waste) and in some you can see their foot or large muscle that they use to bury themselves with.

Here, a seagull chasing a black skimmer that just caught a fish in hopes of stealing it! Little bugger....

Here was a girl that day that decided to see how far she could bury her legs in the sand,

and I happened to capture a moment where she was watching a clam . . . bury itself! 

I love the beach and am drawn to it everyday like a butterfly to nectar.
And it's true that when you forget yourself and open your eyes to all the things around you that you
look at but do not see, you realize that this world is bigger than a you and a me.

Have a wonderful weekend - look around I'm sure you find a treasure too!

Love, Kim
XO