Sea Treasure Finds...

When I decided to make the effort to get beach therapy on a weekly basis (as much as humanly possible)…I started out visiting N. Peninsula Beach, which is just south of Flagler Beach. It's a nice enough beach, esp. since almost no one goes there, but the bounty from beach-combing isn't the greatest. The best seashells are on the W. coast of Florida, but I still manage to find plenty of interesting, attractive shells and other neat sea treasures….

Sunrise at N. Peninsula Beach…by the light of the silvery…sun…

I always head for the beach around sunrise...

Nature creates plenty of lovely shell pendants…

esp. ark shells in my beachy part of the world…

in white, orange, brown, and black...

The ocean breeze can leave these pretty ripples in the coquina sand...

…A sanderling taking a morning bath…

I'd never witnessed this before…

They're usually busy fishing for breakfast...

 Not good photos, but you can see that this is a Florida scrub jay…

They live in the sandy, scrubby terrain of N. Peninsula State Park…

Which lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway.

 Ghost crabs are plentiful along our beaches…

I had two startle me while I was busy scanning the high tide wrack…

The cannonball jellyfish wash ashore by the dozens in late winter…

…An angelwing shell…

There are a lot of feathers washed ashore…

This was the first raptor feather I've seen…

No clue if it's an osprey's but they fish the Atlantic

daily and can be seen most visits to the beach...

I've seen a couple of these spider crabs…

Thank goodness they're small! Yeesh!

I also made a visit to the beach at Marineland, south of St. Augustine…

the area has the interesting coquina limestone formations…

…A couple laughing gulls chillin' in the morning light…

…I didn't find any exciting shells, but did find this brown sea cucumber…
I highly recommend not touching one if you see it…eeeek!

Flagler Finds

Summer is winding down...even in central Florida...but for now it's still plenty warm. Just not quite as warm as September. Our old homestead in S Dakota just got slammed with 3 feet of record-breaking snowfall a couple days ago, yikes! (The Rapid City area.) That "world" seems ages ago...it has been nearly two years now since we left the midwest...it'll officially be two years at the end of this month.

So, speaking of our new reality...Hubby and I really don't get to the beach nearly as often as we should, but we did recently get some beach therapy...

...It was lunchtime, and not just for us but for this ruddy turnstone as well....

...And this sanderling...

The sand ghost crabs are abundant on Flagler Beach, providing free entertainment as they go about the serious business of clearing sand from their tunnel homes. It was another relaxing, pleasant day at sea side.

*    *    *    *    *

.....Back at home, I've been keeping track of all the interesting things nature is coming up with in our own back yard......

This pretty bloom is actually hanging in the back neighbor's yard, just over our fence...but the scraggly little tree is actually in our yard. The squirrels use it as a ladder to get up onto the fence.

This tree has pretty, peeling bark...and white cluster blossoms up on top.

These clusters of tiny mushrooms kept appearing on and off this summer, under the magnolia "tree" (it's actually a branch sprouted from a magnolia tree stump, but it looks like a small tree and has had blossoms  :) )...

In the front yard, I recently captured a fritillary at a crown-of-thorns...

Lately, I've been sticking close to home due to a nasty head cold / bronchitis, which is finally getting better and I'm feeling more amongst the living again.