Today's Treasures

I love the beach. Winter. Summer. Whenever. Each season holds its own unique charms. I spend most of my time on the beach hunched over combing the sand for shells. There is just something about the vastness of the ocean and of the shore that makes finding a tiny thing of beauty so immensely exciting and satisfying. Over the years I have become more and more finicky, instructing the children that no broken shells, no matter how pretty, are to be put in the shell bucket. (I have a big drawer full of these things at home.)

What I am always on the lookout for is a perfect sand dollar. Not an easy find. My son discovered one a couple of years ago. Who knows how long it remained unbroken under the care of the sea. It lasted about 4 minutes under ours. At least I got a good photo before it was violently dropped into the shell bucket.

Today I found one of my very own. It is perfect. It measures a minute 1/2-inch in diameter. It's tiny. Sure, it has a hole in it. I don't care. It is a perfectly formed hole on my perfect teensy sand dollar.

This little gem was not plopped into the shell bucket, but placed gingerly into my shirt pocket.




Here are some of the other treasures we happened upon today.

Titus found this one for me. We call it a fan. (It may have another name. I can't find it on the internet.) It is flat and delicate and hard to find in one piece. I love them. And they make great embellishments on homemade cards. (Maybe I'll show you my handiwork in another post.)




If you break open a sand dollar, you will find 5 little 'doves' inside. I didn't find the sand dollar that this little dove came out of - most likely it was in pieces nearby (or not nearby).









These are also pretty rare to find intact, for us anyway. The shell is rather thin and delicate. It is a moon snail called a shark's eye.










A scotch bonnet - a thick and sturdy shell, and one we don't find too often.






A perfect whelk, possibly a Lightning Whelk. Hard to find in one piece. Titus usually finds these, and found this one.






I love the colors in this little Coquina!








This one is super cool. I think it is an Imperial Venus Clam.











Admittedly, this one isn't very pretty. And it's fairly common. But I like it. It's a Kitten's Paw.

And that's not even HALF of all the shells we collected today. But I'm hungry and mom's cooking!