Sanibel Island, Florida

[lavendertook]

Here's some pics from the couple of days I stayed on Sanibel Island last week, collecting shells like a mad shell collecting thing:


Morning light on the beach. Why Sanibel Island is a beachcomber's paradise.


I got up before dawn--a feat that is astonishing to those who know my not-a-morning-person essence--carrying a little flash light to hunt my intrepid prey under the cover of nightfall. My prey being empty shells--I don't like taking the live ones, even though that's what real collectors go for.


White shores are calling. Two days were not enough.


And all will turn/To silver glass/A light on the water . . .


Why do the white gulls call? Well, sandpiper's really--they prefer text messaging.

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

This makes me so "homesick" for my time living in Florida! Lovely pics!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I wanna be back there! Where in FL did you live?

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

I lived in Jacksonville for about four years (before we went to Trinidad). Miss the weather and the ocean lots!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

If you ever get out here, I'll take you to Delaware Beach State Park, which is lovely for a non-tropical beach. I'm partial to the west coast of Florida for the shells and fine sands--have just been a visitor several times--I'm a total ocean lover. I knew you lived in Trinidad--how long were you there? Are there any good shelling beaches there that you found?

[annwyn55.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! I'm not crazy about swimming (unless the water's blood-warm) but give me a live beach, and I'm as happy as a clam. :D

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually go to the beach hardly at all in Trinidad (I was there for about 6 months), believe it or not. We lived too far inland and didn't have a car and it would have been at least an hour's drive through windy rain-foresty roads to get to the main beach. But I DID have an adventure one day:

http://claudia603.livejournal.com/1709733.html

Those pics might give you a bit of insight as to what the beaches were like there. Not as typical Caribbean as you might think!

I'm in love with the ocean and palms, which makes living in central IL a little heart-breaking for me right now!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Good heavens! What gorgeousness. Such a beach, shells, sky and light. I opened up the gallery, LT, and looked at the set. The lighting coming through the clouds over the water in the pics starting from the late #20's was just ... well, Grey Haven-ish. And those are just little photos! How enormous and chest-filling to have actually been there, in the presence of such beauty.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Did you do a photoshoot with Bingo while there? ;)

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Nothing is more beautiful or sacred than the ocean at dawn.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures!

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

And all will turn/To silver glass/A light on the water . .

*smudges a tear from my eye*

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Were you there for work or play?

Yay for getting to hike and explore.

Yeah, I know the beaches, or lack thereof, can vary depending on the rock content and whether there is reefing.

Palms are silly, silly trees that make me happy. And that's the reason I never thought I could survive in the midwest--I fear being landlocked and unable to journey to the ocean in a day, even though I don't get out to it more than a time or two some years. *hugshugshugs* I hope you get to go coastal soon.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

This wasn't the season for ocean dipping, which is OK, since I need to keep something on my feet nowadays due to bone spurs. A beach is a good place to be a burrowing clam. (-:

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

My husband works at the University of West Indies in Trinidad. I was there with him for 6 months or so (maybe 5? tis blurry). I didnt' work while there so I suppose it was play for me for awhile. I was able to take part in a really great writing workshop, for example.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Heeee! Ring-taken Fro! Which is pretty much how I approach Sanibel anyway. (-; And that's why I call Sanibel my Tol Eressea. There's also a mention in the Lost Tales V.1 that Tol Eressean beaches are shell strewn. (-:

It is amazingly beautiful, even if my Smeagol side kept my eyes glued to the ground much of the time in search of shell treasures. But my Elvish side encouraged me to keep looking up now and then and to snap a pic. My Shire hobbit side wanted more time to sit and relax on the porch, but I only had a day and a half, so it was a scramble, but I'm pretty lucky to have had it.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pics--I'll be posting those all in more entries and I'll try to upload some more. They're 10 pixels, so you can keep clicking them until they more than fill your screen.

We need to gather hobbit folk and have a Tol Eressea moot there.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

A little--not as much as I wanted, but I only had a day and a half there, so he got short changed some. But he had his Sam with him, so he didn't mind.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

When I was in high school and part of the New Jersey All-State Chorus, we performed one weekend in Atlantic City and greeted the sunrise on the beach one morning with the Hallelujah chorus. It was thrilling to be part of that.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! How could a Pisces not enjoy a day by the ocean?

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Awwww--not all tears are an evil. *hugs*

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Not just shell-strewn, but gem strewn. But in many ways shells are more beautiful than gems, so it's nice to have both.

You'll post more? Goody, goody. I love pictures but I love them even more when there's commentary.

I haven't seen the ocean in many years and miss it. Since we moved to Minnesota I've only seen it from the air, mostly, flying into San Francisco to visit my sister (she lives three hours north, but not on the coast). But when we lived five years in eastern Long Island I took our daughter to walk on the ocean or on the Sound regularly, every week, which is why we have so many cool shells. But that was many years ago now.

I'll finally get to see the ocean again on April 9, a week from Thursday, incidentally. Our daughter graduates from Coast Guard boot camp the next day and my husband and I are flying out to watch her do it. She's worked so hard. We'll be staying at a little B & B in Cape May, which is supposed to be within view of the ocean. I can't wait! Hope it's not pouring down that day.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

That must have been a neat opportunity. (-:

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Are you just going to be there for one day? It's been a lot of years since I've been to Cape May but it was nice. It is more gem strewn than shell strewn. There are lots of little pieces of clear quartz among the little stones on the beach that are called Cape May Diamonds. If you have time, the Cape May Ferry takes you across the mouth of the Delaware River to a little town in DE called Lewes, that is very cute. I't snto that far north of the place in DE that I have pictures of at the beginning of the scapbook gallery that you looked at.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

That all sounds wonderful, Lavender, but I don't know if we'll have time to even walk on the beach. After flying to Phillie and then driving to Cape May, we're just hoping to get there before it's dark! The next morning we go to the training center for breakfast, then a presentation to families, then graduation, then away we go back to Philadelphia to catch a plane. It's not much of a visit to Cape May, that's for sure. But I've heard Cape May is pretty. Many years ago my parents rented a condo in a big high rise on Bethany Beach, which is not that far. It was a great swimming beach, as I recall, but not much for shells.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

The workshop was a wonderful opportunity, as well as the friends I made there. And so many things that were great and adventure-making. And I'd say a great experience all and all...But I had a very bad experience last May (er...you probably haven't known me long enough to know that drama) that involved being the victim of a violent crime. So it's sort of like I have intense feelings for my time there, but then there was this dark shadow at the end. So it's a mixed-feeling type of thing!! :)))

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Bethany is right near the beach I was talking about. For some reason that beach is very good for shelling--Bethany and all beaches around it don't compare.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I'm so sorry! *hugshugshugs*

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

**hugs right back**

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Lewes? Is that near the beach you mean? It's interesting how different the beaches are, shell-wise, even though they're in a continuous line. Guess it goes to show how different the shore is *under* the water, where we can't see. Well, I should take a look at your photo album again. :)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Lewes I think is a little north of Rehobeth. The beach I have pics up of are a little south of Rehobeth but north of Bethany. Yes, you're right about differences out there, but also slightly different angles of the shoreline itself brings different tides.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww, those pics are beautiful. That must have been wonderfully soothing for the soul to see the beach and the water. :)))