Pictures from Lovers Key State Park and the shells

Yesterday I promised that I would put on the blog the pictures of the beach and the shells and coral we found. So here they are. The first picture is of a horseshoe crab. Now this is the underside. These were littered all over the shoreline. They were all dead. Now I want you to look for the round items. These are urchins. And the fan like shells are called pen shell. These break real easy. Today we started cleaning up the shells and bleaching the sand dollars. This one we did not bleach and I don't think we will. When you see it, you will know why. Here I will tell you the legend of the Sand Dollar.

"There's a pretty little legend that I would like to tell of the birth and death of Jesus found in this lowly shell. If you examine closely you'll see that you find here four nail holes and a fifth one made by a Roman's spear. On one side the Easter Lily it's center is the star that appeared unto the Shepherds and led them from afar. The Christmas Poinsettia etched on the other side reminds us of his birthday, our happy Christmastide. Now break the center open and here you will release the five white doves awaiting to spread good will and peace. This simple little symbol Christ left for you and me to help us spread his gospel through all eternity." This is the poinsettia side. The front to us symbolizes the star shining down and guiding the way. We feel that this one is very special. If anyone knows anything about this particular one, let me know. This is what most of the sand dollars look like. If they are not as white as you would like them to be you just bleach them and let the sun do the rest. We were very fortunate to find as many as we did. Rick even found a way to make them stronger. They are very fragile but if you mix half white glue and half water and spread them with this mixture, they harden so you can use them in projects. We will try this to see if they harden enough to send to the grand kids. If not, they will have to wait till we see them to hand it to them by hand. Here is some of the coral that we found. Our oldest grandson has expressed interest in some of the coral. Here are some of the shells I found. I want to make up some type of bowl or something to display some of the shells and coral. We will probably do a shadow picture frame for the sand dollars. Rick hard at work. This next picture is of a turtle that we saw as we were leaving the park. He just let me take his picture. Like he was posing for me. After I was done, he turned and started off again. Last night Rick went out and took pictures of the moon. Our palm tree in our front yard. Hope everyone is ready for a Happy Holiday and all your shopping is done. Only 11 more days!