Friday, August 3, 2012

Beach happenings. . .week in review


"To live is so startling
it leaves little time for anything else."

- Emily Dickinson


In fact it actually leaves little time to clean one's house!
But hey, I don't think I want to be remembered for that anyway....

I was able to get to the beach twice this week, once on my birthday and once with a friend.
The birthday on the beach was well, a bit of a bust as it rained.
But later in the week my friend and I packed snacks and drinks, books, journals and of course
my handy dandy blue kids net, you remember that one.

We left fairly early set up our chairs, and umbrellas and had ourselves a grand time.
Eating, talking, relaxing, playing . . . rinse (literally),  and repeat.

And it was quite an eventful week at the beach . . .

This was Sunday morning, the birthday edition sunrise . . .

{Shoot.edit.submit}

It seems when I get out that handy dandy blue kids net (lol) I always make a few friends, and they are always quite a bit younger. Together, the three of us caught 375 hermit crabs with a few olive snails thrown in!! I put a few in my make shift glass aquarium and holy cow, one came straight out and took over the shell of another crab. Although this was much to the demise of that other crab, and he struggled for awhile trying to get him out all the way. I'm sparing you the photo and the details as interesting as it was. . . and yes you
are welcome!


They were all put gently back from where they came.....

As I was taking these pics of the hermits, I hear, "he got a shark".....
yes, I dropped everything to go look, well not the camera. It was a very young Bonnethead shark.
They can get up to 5 feet, but average around 3 feet, and are timid and not dangerous to humans.
AND, I just had to hold it . . . it was pretty amazing and its skin was a bit sand papery. He needed some
help staying above water until the water could wash back into his gills



I watched this guy practice his balancing act for the beach Olympics . . .




. . . and the seagulls take a bath.



But then, you see something that makes you go hmmmm . . . at first I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but I scooped it up with my net and was quite perplexed to see this poor red eared slider, a fresh water turtle, floating in the ocean, a very salty body of water. So I rinsed him with some fresh water, had a photo session and found him a safer home. Isn't he just adorable?



This year on the Galveston State Park beach, the vegetation is in abundance with these little yellow flowers and as I was looking for shells I spotted this tiny, and I mean dime size tiny butterfly looking for a snack.


{Flower Art Friday -I used Bonnie's (pixel dust art) painterly texture and love the effect I got on this}


And for Photo Art Friday the theme is doors, and in keeping with my beach theme I used doors from a church in Galveston and overlayed an image of pelicans with some clouds. I used a Kim Klassen texture sunkissed, and two from Pixel Dust - etched in stone and painterly, removing the textures at 100% off the doors in a way to accentuate the crosses. I thought the pelicans were perfect with church doors as they fly with such grace and the hint of clouds remind me of heaven.


"Heavens Grace"
Can you believe it's August already? My kids start back to school in a matter of weeks, and my son starts football camp for high school next week. We are a huge high school football fan family and in fact my daughter has the countdown at 21 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 40 seconds until the first football game.

And one last note, about a pesto called Ernesto, as in Tropical Storm Ernesto. It's on track to become a hurricane by Monday and currently in the Caribbean but it's a bit early to know just where in the Gulf of Mexico it will land. If the high pressure system currently in my area of the gulf stays then chances are it will most likely take a turn for Mexico. This is the time of year when hurricane season starts getting really fired up as the water is very warm, especially in the gulf which is what gives fuel to the storms to grown into major hurricanes. Keep your fingers crossed for all of us here in the gulf!!

Until next time,
Love, Kim
XO





photosbyleanne Photo Art Friday  Let Birds Fly

 the long road  


27 comments:

Danielle said...

Oh I just love the balancing act one!! Thank you for stopping by my place and saying hello.

Gina Kleinworth said...

WOW- look at all those hermit crabs. What amazing things you have found!!

Brenda said...

Glad you got in some quality beach time. I simply love your door image with the layered birds/clouds and your texture application - it does give it a heavenly quality.

Unknown said...

These are ALL just wonderful.
To live close to a beach...heavenly.
Your FlowerArtFriday and PhotoArtFriday photos both have exquisite processing.
Great choices on each!

Unknown said...

I love beach days - they are amazing! All of mine are spent on fresh water shorelines - so I don't get the shell searching as you do.
But the nonetheless, a beach day is the best day ever!

Marilyn said...

Your results are just beautiful. I like the doves flying in the clouds across the doors.
I'm saying a prayer that no hurricane comes near the Gulf.

Claudia said...

Well, this was FABULOUS little trip. Thanks for taking us on it. I so need to come visit you on a trip to the ocean, you are such the expert!

I love the crab photos and your turtle couldnt be cuter. Your shots are all wonderful, very printable.

I think I loved when my kids participated in spots the most. You can be the team photographer and even make a couple of bucks i bet!!

Grand post hon.

Hugs
Your life sister

Claudia

Jeanne said...

Kim I always really love your ocean shots, and glad that you relocated that little turtle! also love that door and the processing you did!

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Glad to hear that you didn't settle for a birthday at the beach that was a wash-out. Your photos and explanations are always a delight to see and read.

Love your processing on the door and on the flower.

School days loom ... where did summer go?

Thank you for linking up with Photo Art Friday, Kim.

Pat said...

Beautiful work!
Glad you rescued the little turtle.

Sherri B. said...

Oh, how lucky you are to live near the beach...what amazing photos! The hermit crabs, the shark, and that sweet turtle...it's a veritable treasure chest of oceanic activity. The processing on the church door is so lovely...and I will hope that hurricane Ernesto decides to take his party elsewhere! *all fingers crossed*

Unknown said...

That looks like one amazing week to me! I love the soft feel of that first shot and the turtle is just too cute. Thank you for sharing!

Tamar SB said...

Kim, these are amazing!! You're making me miss my childhood growing up at the beach!!

Jeannelle said...

Good luck in the football season! My two sons played in high school and how well I recall the excitement of those days. What I liked best was when a game ended with none of the players getting hurt!

Andrea Dawn said...

Always enjoy tagging along to the beach with you. Praying that Ernesto runs out of steam and cancels the party completely.

4 Lettre Words said...

What an amazing collection of finds...and photos!

Kathryn Dyche said...

I just love your beach photos, the one of the bird practicing for the olympics made me giggle. Keeping my fingers crossed that the hurricanes head out to sea.

Lori said...

Great shots! Love the little birdie in training too!

Thanks for sharing Kim,
Lori

Linda/patchwork said...

Looks like a great time at the beach.
Love all the photos. The door one i gorgeous.
We do need some rain from a tropical system to break this stubborn drought. Just hope it hits somewhere without doing much damage. If that can happen.
Have a great weekend.

FM said...

Wonderful pics. Looks like you had fun at the beach.

My entry.

Cathy H. said...

These are all so beautiful! I love your images of the beach!!

Unknown said...

What a lovely collection of photos! The sunrise is absolutely breathtaking! And my daughter would be in heaven if she could just put in a net and bring home a hermit crab! We just paid $10 for a hermit crab and a small cage for it. So happy to have found your site. Stopping by from Shoot.Edit.Submit.

Unknown said...

What a lovely collection of photos! The sunrise is absolutely breathtaking! And my daughter would be in heaven if she could just put in a net and bring home a hermit crab! We just paid $10 for a hermit crab and a small cage for it. So happy to have found your site. Stopping by from Shoot.Edit.Submit.

Unknown said...

Wonderful photos!

Liz said...

Wow! So many wonderful images, Kim!! It all looks like a lot of fun.
That first shot is so beautiful!

Miriam said...

What a fabulous post and even more fabulous images!
Visiting from PAF, so glad I came by.

patty said...

beautiful images, all of them! impressed by your adventures on the beach, and how on earth you recognized a fresh water turtle in the ocean! my son love's reptiles and we have rescues around our house all the time, but stil! if i saw one in the ocean, i think i woud have assumed it belonged there! kudos to you!

thank you for linking with 1440, and im sorry it's taken so long to get here this week... been a bear of week here. belated happy birthday to you, too!

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