SEASHELLS BY THE SEASHORE

Greetings dear reader!

Today was another (yes, TYPICAL) Florida day. 75 degrees and brightly sunny. We started the day again at the pawground playground with Webster, then took him to the dog beach. We were very early, and the tide had not come in yet, so the day was PERFECT for shelling. I came away with a bag full of seashells, sponge, starfish, and assorted other "treasures" that were so plentiful I could literally scoop them up by the handsfull!

There are these little creatures that wash ashore (it makes me very sad, but once they break loose from the coral they attach themselves to, they are deceased and therefore NOT revivable (Is that a word?) Anyhoo, they are sea urchins. Here's what they look like:

Very odd looking little things...and as you can see, they are quite prickly. Webster insists on investigating, however, up close and personal, and I KNOW he has been stabbed in the nose more than once. He will not give up the hunt, tho. Crazy dog! Once they wash ashore, their "quills" are broken off by the sand and the tides...the sun dries them, and then they look like this:



Really quite beautiful. The whole dying-death-washing ashore thing makes the Franciscan monk in me very sad. So many of the underwater habitats are being destroyed one way or another by what seems like human indifference, global warming, and a dozen other things. I think care of the earth INCLUDES the sea creatures too, don't you?

OH! Speaking of sea creatures! Yesterday we spent the day visiting beaches along the gulfcoast of Florida. Bird Key, Sailboat Key, Long Key, Lido Key etc. etc. Anyway, each beach was more beautiful than the last...while at Lido Key (which was a bit of a hike from the car) I saw DOLPHINS playing in the shallows! It was AMAZING! Did I have my trusty camera with me? NOoooooooo of COURSE not! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!? They were so sweet and beautiful...two of them just swimming merrily along and playing "leap frog" in the water. I was so overtaken by both the beauty of the beach and the dolphins I was reduced to tears. (I know, I know...ME, the one who's always accusing my friends of being "sappy" am myself, a closet SAP(with a capital "S")).

In other news, the place where we are staying has a sundeck where we can sit on a swing, read the paper, and enjoy the sunshine "above it all." I spent an hour or so out there today, just basking in the warmth. (I'm thinking perhaps I can somehow STORE this sunshine so when I get back to the cold and gloomy midwest I can radiate it for my own amusement. More on that "experiment" later)

Meanwhile, we are looking at only two more days of this sunny, warm bliss, then its off to the land of ice and snow. On THIS subject, I prefer to take the stance of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind"

"Of fiddle dee dee. I'll not think of that right now. I'll think of it tomorrow...for tomorrow is another day."

More soon! Hugs and SMOOCHIES!

XOXOXOX
Paula Clare