Beach Treasures

Welcome!  I'm so glad you're here.  Happy New Year!

Christmas seemed to be over this year before we knew it.  The tree is down,  the decorations inside and out are put away and it's 2011.  The "kids" have gone home and little beach house is way too quiet.  While they were here, we had a great time laughing at Sparky's antics in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" for the twenty something year, modeling this years PJ's, shopping and golfing.  I should add eating too much to that list. Our brother and family was vacationing on Hilton Head Island and visiting with them was an added bonus.  The visits ended way too soon.  We hated to see each of them leave and are looking forward to the next time.   

The weather here has been "unseasonably" chilly but sunny.  Yesterday, Jerry, Grace and I took advantage of a beautiful day and went to the beach.  It was cool but sunny and beach treasures were lying everywhere.  We are such shelling novices that when we checked the shell poster at home we discovered we left several goodies for someone else because we didn't know what they were.  A pocket shell book is on my immediate shopping list.  Jerry was lucky to find a knobbed whelk and a rough pen shell.  Both are large and in good condition.  My finds were tiny treasures except for a stinky sponge.  Believe me, it is stinky!  I'm hoping lots of fresh water and sunshine will help it.  Jerry made a couple of end tables with glass tops that we are rapidly filling with sea goodies.  Stinky sponge will have to improve quite a bit before he's allowed in the house, let alone in a display table.

  

Sand dollars were abundant!  Dead ones were lying everywhere.  I found some huge ones and put them in a plastic bag. They were way too fragile for that and all of them broke.  These are two of the ones I found later.  Live ones were dug in so thick we had to be careful walking.  The beach was huge!  I've never seen such a low tide or as many tidal pools. 

A group of female equestrians was just leaving as we got there.  I can only imagine how much fun they had!  Still on the beach  was a family of three boys playing "bike" football.  They were having a great time and Mom was right in the middle of the fun.  They left shortly after we arrived and the beach was totally ours except for an occasional walker. 

We hadn't been there for a few days and we were surprised to see how much it had changed.  Hunting Island Beach experienced bad erosion in a storm that sat offshore too long a few years ago.  As a result the beach had tree stumps and a lot of debris in some areas.  It is now stump free and a beautiful uncluttered 4 mile beach.  Grace and I walked almost all of it and it was like exploring a brand new area. 

The winter beach with all of its abundant surprises and treasures is an exciting, awesome place.  Maybe more so than the summer one.  Beach walking in freezing rain doesn't sound like something I'm likely to do so it may be a day or two before I get back........thanks to Mother Nature who could definitely use an attitude adjustment!

Thanks for stopping in.  It's been fun!  Wherever you are...enjoy your day!