RANDOM PHOTO - A HORSESHOE CRAB

I find these fascinating creatures and very prehistoric looking. As I am sharing from my archives and looking at a lot of old blog posts to reshare, I found this. We were in Virginia Beach walking along the sand. It is a shell of an old Horseshoe crab. I wondered if its demise was caused by a hungry gull. Their footprints were everywhere, as you might expect from a walk on the beach.

Horseshoe crabs are marine anthropods of the family Limulidae and order Xiphosura or Xiphosurida that live primarily in and around shallow waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms.  

A horsehoe crab is best described as a 'living fossil', an ancient, armored arthropod that has remained virtually unchanged for over 450 million years, predating even the dinosaurs. Despite their name they are not true crabs, but more closely related to spiders and scorpions. 

There is an amazing amount of information about them online, but I will finish here.

If you want to find out more, you can go to this link. The following photo I found on pixabay.com

Thanks for looking and I hope you are having a great week so far.

BEACH SCENE AND A POEM

There's times you'll be 

A sinking boat

Left adrift at sea,

And times you'll be 

The ocean tide

Breaking wild and free.

There's times you'll be

A jellyfish

And other times a seal,

And times you'll be

The great white shark

And times you'll be the meal.

There's times you'll feel

Like giving up

And sinking to the floor,

And times you'll float

Upon your back

And wash up on the shore.

But know these times

Will come and go,

And just like tides

Will ebb and flow,

And though you won't

Know which you'll be,

You're still a part

Of that mighty sea.

by Dallas Clayton

As often happens when I read poetry online, I will come across something that stays with me. This is one such poem by Dallas Clayton who is an American author and motivational speaker. This poem is a well-known piece often shared online for its inspirational message about life's challenges and the enduring nature of what a person can do if their choice is to persevere and keep putting that one step forward. 

The photo is from my archives. We were on a road trip driving around Florida in January 2014.

PELICAN SQUADRON IN FLORIDA 2014

From my archives: we were on a road trip down to Florida and we had left our hotel that morning. We stopped shortly afterwards, so that we could enjoy our daily exercise by walking along the beach. An added benefit of course was being able to see not only the gulls but also the pelicans. As you can see by this first photo, it was a very foggy morning but there I am, camera in hand, enjoying all those birds.  

I thought they were waiting for the fog to clear before taking off over the ocean......

but more likely they are all facing the same direction into the wind to stabilize themselves while standing. There is less chance of them getting blown over this way. Facing in this direction gives the gulls an easier takeoff, which I suppose applies to the Pelicans. Birds are generally referred to as a 'flight' when in the air and a 'flock' on the ground, but gulls on the ground are called a 'colony'.  

So, what do you call a group of Pelicans?

A Squadron......

and this Squadron of Pelicans decided it was time to take off.....

but first they had to receive their orders from their Squadron Leader....

who was chatting with his second in command.

"Get ready chaps!"

Uh-oh!  They're doing a scramble.  Scramble? According to RAF (Royal Air Force) terminology, getting airborne as soon as possible. But they're looking a bit at a loss as to which direction to take off in.  A bit ropey chaps!

Should we scrub take off?

Whoa, steady now!

No?  It's a go!

And the crowd roars!

The Squadron Leader called it, a "Jolly good show and a good practice run. We will do even better tomorrow.

Let's head back to the NAAFI to get a cup of char".  That's tea to everyone who doesn't know what a cup of char is.

It is said that Pelicans are the largest flying birds, because they have air in their bones that makes them lighter and more graceful than they appear.  

Thanks for looking and if you remember this from last time, (last time being in March 2014), hopefully you will enjoy it again.

Have a great day!

ANOTHER GOOD QUOTE FOR YOU, LACED WITH POSITIVITY AND HOPE

I heard these lines spoken a long time ago. I can’t remember from whom but I think I heard them in a movie from one of its characters. I had to get my notebook and quickly jot them down. It is a pity I didn’t remember the actual production but it was an engrossing part and I was busy following the storyline (not recently, several years ago). They are a variation of words from Beethoven's ‘Ode to Joy’. I found my old notebook again, saw the words and now you are seeing them too. I thought they were and still are beautiful. 

I took the photo several years ago. Sanderlings are my favorite beachcomber! For our international friends who would like to translate the quote on my photograph, it says: “All men will become brothers under gentle wings.”

Short and sweet today! Thanks for looking and I hope your day is a great one. 

MY NIECE'S SUNRISE PHOTO AND A POEM

When we took a trip down to North Carolina, my niece took this photo on 4-16-25 at sunrise. I thought it was gorgeous and I asked her if I could share it on here. She was happy to say yes. Thank you my sweet, you are greatly missed!

"The tide recedes but leaves behind

bright sea shells on the sand.

The sun goes down, but gentle

warmth still lingers on the land.

The music stops, and yet it echoes

on in sweet refrains…

for every joy that passes,

something beautiful remains…"

and the sun will rise again.

~author unknown~

AN OLD FAVORITE - LEAF ON THE SAND

Another old photo. This was found on a beach in Florida on our last visit there several years ago.  An old leaf full of glistening sand.

The beach is full of treasures not necessarily made of gold.  The fun is in the hunt for them, to open our eyes we just have to look outside the box. 

A little like life I think.
  

~~~~~~~

Thanks so much for dropping by.

I wish you all a great day!

A TRIP DOWN TO DOWN TO NORTH CAROLINA - PART 2

No Monday Morning recipe today as I have quite a few posts to share with you. I can honestly say we were on the go the whole time we were together, and didn’t make anything except for a very simple meal on Easter Sunday. 

Every day we gave them a few choices as to what they would like to do. We went to the National Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar Hazy, where Gregg deposited me at the cafe for another sit-down. I drank a cup of coffee and Gregg joined me shortly afterwards. We waited for a while until our family had a good chance to walk around and joined us. For me it was fun seeing all the activity, people and families going back and forth. I will share the photos they took eventually.  

We gave them three days to relax and then traveled to North Carolina, staying with Gregg's sister and husband. It took us about 7 to 7-1/2 hours to get there. A good journey considering. It was so kind of them opening up their home to us all and thanks to them, we had a great time.Gregg's sister loves collecting shells and sees the beauty even in the broken ones. I agree as I thought those displayed in this vase were delightful. She has more upstairs, whole ones. She also gave me two conch shells a few years ago that are still treasures on our family room bookshelf.

I found this online. You can enlarge all photos for better detail.

One of the days we found ourselves at Bodie Island Lighthouse.

 Our niece with Uncle Gregg.

Here she is again.

I am including three maps showing the location of the lighthouse.

The current Bodie Island Lighthouse (Bodie is pronounced 'body') is the third that has stood in this vicinity of Bodie Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and was built in 1872.

It stands 156 feet (48 m) tall and is located in the Roanoke Sound side of a portion of peninsula that is the first part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The lighthouse is just south of Nags Head, a few miles before Oregon Inlet.

It was renovated from August 2009 to March 2013, and was made climbable by the public. There are 219 steps that spiral to the top. 

The 170-feet structure is one of only a dozen remaining tall, brick tower lighthouses in the United States, and one of the few with an original first-order Fresnel lens to cast its light. 

You can read a lot more of its history at this website, which is where I got the above information.

On the itinerary? A sunrise! They got up at 0-dark-thirty. I again stayed at home as not only wasn't I able to walk too far at all but walking on the sand in the dark would have been an accident waiting to happen, so I was very happy to get a peck on the cheek from Gregg upon which I slide back under those nice, warm, cozy covers. His sister took them to the beach. I enjoyed the conversation later telling me all about it.

Our dear niece, photo taken by Gregg...

and another he took of the rest of the family watching the sun appear over the horizon.

With Uncle Gregg again.

Brother and sister who always enjoy each other’s company. They are looking forward to getting together with their other brother not too far down the road.

These photos were taken by various family members. Looks like they had a wonderful time.

That's all for Part 2 and more to follow.

Thanks for looking and I hope your day is a great one.