Listen to yourself You may need more seashells in your life!

Hello, beach friends. I've been feeling especially grateful for my life lately, and not just because I get to see scenes like this or the fact I get to kayak to an island on a random Wednesday, but because I remember a time when I didn't feel this peaceful. I didn't even know this kind of happiness was possible for me. And now sometimes I look at my life and I think, how did I get so lucky? But I also know it wasn't entirely luck. Somewhere along the way, I chose to finally listen to myself, to pay attention to what I needed, what mattered to me, and take an honest look at my life instead of hoping it would magically get better. So I made some long overdue difficult choices, and days like this are a reminder of just how much things have changed for me. And I will admit, I do hope that picking up the shells other than broken fighting conchs will change for me as well. All right, this is a change. It is a broken Sunray Venus clam instead of a fighting conch, and that's okay. Now look, I came at low tide, which is when I typically come. It's not going to get super duper low today, and I knew that, but my choices were to go or not to go. Weather was going to cooperate. I decided to go. Ah, all right, there's another not really great looking fighting on to another, and a shark eye. You know what? At least there is something here. The water is clear. I'm still feeling like it could turn out to be an okay day. We have, all right, a quahog. Yes, the juvenile ones have that zigzag on top. This is a southern quahog. We don't see any purple on the interior, but those quahogs, if left to be able to grow, they get really quite big. See some color. All right, another fighting conch. That one's looking a little bit better than some of the other ones. I see the bottom of a shark eye. Okay, yeah, that's been here for a little while. Now, I did bring my clear bucket. I also brought my snorkel and mask just in case, and I will try my absolute hardest to find whatever kind of good treasures might be out here. If I don't find anything, that's okay too, but luckily today is not going to be one of those days, and I found this honey hole that was just so fun, just kind of getting a little bit grabby with some of the things that are in the surf. So, if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today on Key Waden, let's go to the beach. So, yes, I am here on Key Waden. I'm more middle of the island versus a south island when we do the tours, since I've kayaked here. Now, this fighting conch, that one's looking a little bit better yet than even some of those other ones. Believe it or not, it's kind of a juvenile. The lip was rather thin, even though it looks like a bigger shell. When they mature, the lip of the shell will get thicker. That is a mossy arc. Kind of looks like, I call it the weird cousin of the turkey wing. It just doesn't have those really defined zigzags, the way that a turkey wing does. Nice and clear. Oh my gosh, spots. Spots, yes! So early in the trip, I knew this was a good omen. Now, yeah, the aperture is a little bit broken. I don't care, because typically, frankly, I should not be finding alphabet cones on a day like today, but I did. So, I think luck will be on my side. Oh, an apple murrex. Yeah, the lovely phylonotus palmum. Yep, that is a swell find. Oh, hello, beautiful. You're wonderful. So, that is a shark eye moon snail that has been buried, but only certain areas have kind of soaked up that black. Gorgeous, gorgeous. And yes, that would be a Paul Newman shark eye, because it had a blue-like eyeball. All right, that is a juvenile fighting cock, and that is a lightning whelk. Very nice. Okay, what else? All right, a dark serif. All right, that's okay. I've seen ones that are in better shape, but still, is there another one? Why, yes, there are. Oh, okay, most of a dark serif. All right, so two dark serifs. I do kind of like when they're broken. You can kind of see the interior, the interior handiwork of the mollusk. Well, hi, this is another moon snail of the colorful variety. Yep, so we'll call that a gaudinotica, or a colorful moon snail. It's so fancy, it has two names. I saw orange. Okay, we're looking at a calico clam this time. I feel like those are like designer clams. We got fancy clams down here. Other than the quahogs, we have those too. All right, a piece looks like a piece of a crown cock, perhaps. Sand dollar. All right, yeah, be gentle. Okay, well, it's intact. You know what, though? Yeah, it's kind of like irregularly shaped, and it's got like a couple missing bits and pieces. So I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm gonna leave that here for somebody else. Yep, and it's okay that I'm a little snobby. I've been doing this for a little while, so I can get just a little more particular. So that is a broken lightning whelk. Fantastic. Frankly, if I kept everything, that's all I would do, is I would just be managing shells. And I need to have time to go out and film and do things like this, so I can get these lettered olives. Or a juvenile fighting conch. That's a little bit broken, which will probably not pass the test. Yeah, yeah. All right. All right, that is another piece of a quahog. Yep, they do get quite big and thick, those quahogs. Fighting conch. Yeah, check it out. All right. Another shark eye. Oh, that's kind of pretty with the swirls on it. And its aperture is a little bit chewed. It's okay, I'm gonna. Oh, it's a false shark eye. That little like, yeah, that indentation there. Okay, I'm gonna keep it. There's just a lot going on. And I can always change my mind later. This is a true tulip. The banded tulips don't typically have like a solid color like that. And the bands on the true tulip are much closer together. All right, another dark serif. Oh, that one's very nice. Nice aperture. We can see the siphonel canal on the bottom there. Lovely dark serif. Okay, got grabby with a tinted cantherus. Those are in the same family as nutmegs. They're kind of related. They have kind of have that same shape. So I get that. I get that. All right, so at least there's something if I was just picking up broken fighting conchs, I'd be kind of rough. And I don't know what I just do you come across giant shells, and you just have to check them out. I feel it's almost like compulsive. Like I just I have to at least just look at it. And like, yeah, I'm not gonna keep it. I knew I wasn't going to but just want to check it out. Oh, there's a pear whelk. Yes, I wish we had met sooner pear whelk. But thank you for showing up and allowing me to have something to entertain myself at this part of the beach. Oh, oh, this is looking rather lovely. Actually, I think I'm going to be quiet and let you have some beach time. All right, I kind of like to give the birds as much space as they need. But I would really like to kind of see what little things are kind of washing up in this area here. Although to be fair, it could be kind of like older stuff. Yeah, there's a horse conch, most of the horse conch, a little oyster on there. Yeah, I think I don't know that I probably leave that maybe for some hermit crab. All right, so maybe there's not all that much right here. And that's fine. I'm gonna leave the birds in the shoreline behind and look more birds. Now, birds migrate a lot over 1000s and 1000s of miles. And so it is never a good idea to run and chase them. They really do need to conserve their energy, regardless of what time of year it is. So I do try to explore the beach, but not upset them. And honestly, if you just give them enough room that they're, they're pretty relaxed for the most part, except for skimmers, they really are kind of nervous little birds. So hoping if I just give them enough room, I can kind of let me just kind of see what's in the water. So yeah, they're, they're pretty relaxed. And I feel like if you don't make eye contact, they feel even more relaxed. And in fact, I'm giving them a little bit of I'm giving them a birth a wide birth. So I can check the water and they can keep their spot up on the beach. Oh, there's another fighting conch. Yeah, I think at this point, I'm actually searching for a couple of good ones. Yeah, that one looks good. I mean, the bones of it look good. It looks a little slimy, but that's nothing little bleach can't take care of. Now this looks like tons of tinies. Oh, well, we do have an apple myrix. With all its nooks and crannies hard to say is this rubble? Or is it really kind of like tiny shells? Let's I'm seeing some rubble. There's a nutmeg. Fantastic. That's a fabulous little shell. That's top and everything. Yeah, I see broken stuff. I see maybe a juvenile fighting conch in there some variable worm rock. Okay, a top snail appears to be relatively intact. All right, a little letter olive. All right, there's a little goodies in here. Another piece of a mossy arc. Yeah. So frankly, in the summer, especially this time, like we really haven't had a lot of wave action like storms or anything. And I definitely don't want a storm. But this is what happens after many, many months of just very stable weather. The shells just kind of really start to hide until the weather changes a little bit. So this is just the way it's gonna be dusky cone. And so for honestly, this is pretty good. I'm getting a nice variety. Here's another little shark eye. And that probably started as a drill hole and then just kind of broke apart. So we have a dusky cone and a shark eye. Yeah, just trying to kind of yeah, I don't know that there's enough to really bother slowing down. It's really kind of just crushed pieces and whatnot. But again, I'm still happy at least there's something here including that alphabet cone. Oh, it's beautiful here. Goodness. Now this was kind of odd. I'm like, what are you doing here? Look how beautiful that's a paper fig. And it's the only one I'm going to find today. It was in the water weird, weird, but that is a lovely paper fig. Okay. Giant Atlantic cockle the very nice interior. Yep. You are beautiful. So hold on to that. Very pretty kind of looks like one of those kalimba those little musical instruments. The water just beautiful the time to be a little lower and I would help me out. That would be cool. But I still managed to get this apple Murex. So with a view like this, and my goal being picking up seashells, I really don't think I can complain. Now here we do have a that's a juvenile fighting conch and then a calico scallop. So there's a little bit of a variety. Yay. All right, what do I see here? A little bit of a puddle of sorts. All right, making my way up the beach. Oh, looks like we got ourselves a relatively weathered alphabet conch. Yeah, likely going to leave that here. What else? I see a lightning walk. There is a very sandy apple Murex. And another as yep, I saw that shark eye. All right, so some sandy treasures up there. Lovely. Yep. Yes, I see a banded tulip. Yes, yes, I do. Oh, yeah, the aperture tiny bit beat up. Yeah, I usually I'll just take it home. And then if I decide to bring it back to the beach another time, so be it. Oh, hello, alphabet conch also with a little bit of a broken aperture. That's okay. It's still fun. Still fun when those desirable shells show up. I see some K's on there. Another shark guy. Oh, yeah, Paul Newman. That's got blue. Very nice. So yeah. All right. Looks like here we have ourselves that shark guy and an alphabet cone. Oh, there's another cone. Yeah. Yeah, that one's probably gonna stay here. Looks like it had to run in with some sort of bristle worm or something on the bottom there. And then the coloration will be from being buried after a while. So if you get shells that are in like really good condition, it just means that they were recently vacated. This one looks really good. I love that almost like tangerine kind of color. Yep, you're coming home with me. You're very, very lovely. Another fighting conch. Okay, yes, this is the honey hole. Look how pretty now that is that black is like stained. I don't care though, because I do like the bigger shark eyes. So now we're gonna have some fun. Because as soon as I show up here, okay, and then here is that look at that. It's definitely not pony size, but much bigger. Yep, definitely be keepable horse conch. So now things are going to pick up just a little bit. All right, here we have what I've found one today, but we have another nutmeg. Fantastic. Cute little thing. Nice. It's got its top and all its pieces. So there's just shells kind of rolling all in the water here. And so I have a choice. I can either wait and hope I see what I'm getting and kind of quickly scoop or just grab a handful. See what I come up with. See if I feel lucky. So I was doing both. Right, what's here? And I'm a little bit slower. I used to just look at it way too quickly ended up dumping shells back into the water. So I'm just a little bit better. Hey, you learn, right? You learn. So yeah, I'm gonna take a good look at this before I figure out I do see the apple myrix. And okay, there was a juvenile little fighting conch in there as well. All right, here. All right. I see the nutmeg. What? All right. So in that scoop, it was only the nutmeg. Now the thing that's kind of in the back of my mind, I wish I had a scoop right now. But I try to travel as late as possible. And I just never know what the conditions are going to be. So Oh, yeah, that auger went off. Sorry, drop the auger. All right, it looks like a nutmeg and a juvenile fighting conch. Oh, and a little look at the adorable little apple myrix. Excellent. So this is fun. Yeah, this is like, this is what I consider to almost be like a video game. But you're at the beach, you know, you're not dealing with screens and whatnot. Okay, got it. Oh, that's a really good alphabet cone. Oh, I did. I dumped the the tinted cantharis. That's okay, though. Yeah, that's a nice cone. That's aperture and all the things. All right. All right. There's another cantharis anyway. So lightning walk, I see the colorful moon snail has been a little bit beat up the lightning. And then that's nice tinted cantharis. So okay, all all is well. Again, I have one to replace the other one I dumped. Now I think that is going to clean up really, really well. It's an adult, it does have kind of a thinner lip. But I do I think that's gonna clean up really good. Now that is a banded tulip, an orange one, little more rare, usually those the greens and grays. But I do prefer just again, just because they're rare. I think everyone likes the things that are just a little more unusual. Yeah, I was trying to pinpoint something and now we're just gonna go Oh, look at that just a handful as a banded tulip and another cone. Although I think that cone has probably seen better days. Yeah, it's definitely seen better days. But there's a little banded tulip. Woot woot. Okay. All right, here is another sand dollar. Let's see. Nope. No, I can tell. Yeah, it's a little broken on the side. Yeah, and I know I feel bad almost being bratty about it. But the fact of the matter is, is that we do have a lot of sand dollars down here. And you can really kind of hold out for a good one, or at least I can because I go shelling often enough. So I don't ever, ever want it to become passé. So I really do try to remember to pinch myself and just be so grateful even for the sand dollars that I don't collect. Oh, all right, there's stuff here. And I'm telling you, I wanted my scoop badly. Oh, look at this little ribbed cantharis. You're so adorable. It's Oh, it's so cute. So that does I do like the wenzel traps and those cantharis shells. Oh, I see another tinted cantharis. Maybe a button in there. No, it's a broken. Okay, so all right, we have an olive. Then we have the ribbed cantharis in the middle and then a tinted cantharis on the right and I know they don't look really related those cantharis, but they're still swell canthari. So I did have my bucket and I thought, hey, is it going to help me if I scoop? So look at that one. That is glorious. And then there was the juvenile fighting conch. So maybe maybe I mean, I'm carrying this bucket around. Is it going to help me? And so like a little bit, I thought perhaps it would be helpful. But ultimately now like it's now I got lucky like the first two scoops. But beyond that, I'm like, all right, this this isn't helping me. So just kind of go back getting grabby and we have a little nutmeg little fighting conch. Delightful. So I don't know if I'm cleaning out the honey hole here or oh no, not yet. Not yet. I see a cone and what else? All right. It looks like there was only this alphabet cone of questionable condition like it's okay. I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Oh, that's nice. Very nice. Nooks and crannies. You know, all those nooks and crannies are good for catching like algae and things and it really kind of hides the animal. So I wonder if that's on purpose. If the nooks and crannies can kind of help. I don't know. Banded tulips are very, very smooth. So they went with a different tactic perhaps. Fighting conch. Yeah. The color. Yep. Colors are going to make it a little easier. Oh, fantastic. So I suspect that this particular little spot right here is pretty good just because low foot traffic. To get here, you were either going to need to kayak here or hire a boat. And typically the tours are on the south end of the island. Oh, there is a little tiny, another little cantharis, a banded tulip and a little jingle. Fantastic. Oh, another shark eye. Another cone. So it actually was a pretty good cone day. The shark eye. Okay. And a very shy little fighting conch behind that shark eye. It was hard to, I was having such great luck in that little spot. It was really hard to leave it. I don't know if I'm leaving it quite yet or if I'm just going to kind of walk away and then come back to it. Here's a calico scallop. All right. Yep. It's got soaked up some of that dark color. The shark eyes, some of the color was absorbed. It was kind of cool. All right. And I didn't, I was mostly walking the water's edge over here. And as I walked back to the kayak, here's a little, it's broken, but still a fun little nutmeg. Looks like when it repaired itself, it kind of got lazy. It was like, eh, I don't feel like putting color down. Now I remember this shell. This was interesting. So this is a mauve mouth drill, but the shell actually looked lilac. Like the entire shell had like a little bit of a purple cast to it. I don't, eh, it looks a little purple there, but that was kind of fun. Just, I know it's not perfect, but yeah, I've seen kind of a purple shell. Believe me, it doesn't take a whole lot to really entertain me here. This gorgeous, gorgeous, just the way it is. So the fighting conchs. Yep. I absolutely have a thing for them. It just, I guess we all have our things. And one of mine definitely happens to be the fighting conchs. Turkey wing. All right, here we have a proper turkey wing. It looks good. I'm going to need to check on the under, yep. Looks good. I have to check the underside. They're just kind of a regular. So I like to check just to see if they're broken or not. And this shell, I really just like, how did it know to put those spots where it put it? Like it just decorated it just the way it did. And it was on the underside as it was creating its shell. So scallops are very, very creative. Maybe not so much the bay scallops. They kind of, they don't go in with the patterns the way that the calico scallops do. Although I like them, so I'm going to rinse that off. Oh, pretty. Just lovely. And they get wee bit bigger, I think so, than the calico scallops. The lovely bay scallop. Now this area, something like this is more like a puzzle. So I just feel like my spider senses are kind of like, there's something here. So it just, it feels, like I said, it feels like a puzzle. It just makes my brain really happy. So I'm just looking for shapes or something that, oh, I see it. Something that my brain recognizes. And that is an albino nutmeg. So a little harder to find white shells amongst a bunch of other old white shells, but very satisfying. So yeah, it's not perfect. That's okay. Yep. Any of the albino shells are really a great find. So that lovely albino nutmeg. All right. That's looking wabi sabi to me. Yep. Wabi sabi, meaning we're going to appreciate something because of the way that it's broken. And then this is a cut ribbed arc. So it looks like we have an intact and a rather not intact shell. Yeah, I don't know. I don't sometimes with things like that, but we do have a piece of a lace myrix and a cut ribbed arc. All things considered, what a day. Now the tide was not as low as I normally would have liked it, but look at these calico scallops. The shells are still showing up. So nothing to complain about. Nothing at all. All right. Not all that much here. Yeah. I think most of the, seeing I was in the water, that's where I feel like a lot of the shells sometimes kind of stay. All right. We have a top snail. Super cute little thing. Lovely little top snail. And another calico scallop. Yeah. You likely were yelling at me because of that bright purple color. Yep. Okay. What? Yeah. What an amazing, just so much fun wandering around this island. All right. The birds are still kind of claiming that one little beach there. Frankly, it's fine. I don't think there's all that much there. I don't. I have plenty of other places to explore. Oh my gosh. So I have already picked up this particular horse conch with a broken and little piece of oyster on it, but it seems kind of persistent. So in this case, fine. I'll throw it in the shell bag again. I can always change my mind some other time. All right. Gulf oyster drill, a tinted cantor and a piece of glass. All right. As I make my way back to my, there's my ride and my partner in crime. Now, my partner in crime, this is actually her day off. And what is she doing? She's shelling. What does she normally do? She shells. And so I did come out here with Ali from SWFL Shell Guide. Not that this was her tour, because it wasn't. We just decided to get together and go shelling. And so I just so appreciate her friendship. And I would not hesitate for a heartbeat to recommend anyone taking her tours. She truly cares if her guests find the shells. So that was a wonderful couple of hours here on Key Wade. The wind had decided to pick up as we were leaving. So we had a little bit of a tough paddle getting back off the island, but we did make it. And look, we were even blessed to be kayaking with dolphins. What an absolutely beautiful day. And I still can't believe I get to call this my life. But before I go, I want to leave you with just one question. What do you already know you need in your life that maybe you haven't been listening to? Maybe this is your week to listen to, because sometimes the life we keep wishing for begins with finally being honest about the life we're living. So there was a tiny bit of garbage. Luckily, it was only 3.3 ounces, but it does mean in total, I've removed a little over 97 pounds from beaches that I have visited. And today I've removed a couple of apple murix. There was that paper fig, the top snail, spiny jewelboxes, as well as some lightning welks. There's a worm snail, a horse conch, a dark serith, a coquina, a calico clam, some of those tinted cantheresses, a ribbed cantheress, sharp ribbed drill, a mauve mouth drill, nutmegs, dusky cones, turkey wing, alphabet cones, shark eyes, kitten paws. There's a colorful moon snail on the bottom, olives, mossy arc, calico scallops, the giant Atlantic cockle, the bay scallop, some fighting conchs, banded tulips, the true tulip on top there. But today I've decided my favorites are that alphabet cone, that shark eye, the horse conch, the albino nutmeg, and that particular ribbed cantheress because I thought it was so super pretty. And for, again, this time of year, shoot, it was just a great day. Who cares what time of year it was? That was awesome. I got some exercise, I got to spend it with one of my dear friends, and I got to collect a couple of seashells and take some garbage off the beach. I mean, perfect day. Patreons, without you, none of it would have been possible. So thank you so much for choosing to support me and allowing me to go out and do fun things like this, and ask provocative questions, and maybe, I don't know, we can all just be a little bit happier people. Now something that would make me really happy is if I can find a way to really kind of manage the shells I collect. So these from today's trip, I want to put those over on eBay. So I'm going to try a couple of different things and just kind of see what happens. Now next week I am headed to, well, it's going to be a bit of an adventure. I've a captain, I've got some people to go shelling with, and we're going to go see what happens. So until then, I hope you have yourself a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Sunday.