BUZZZZZZ

How doth the little busy bee

Improve each shining hour,

And gather honey all the day

From every opening flower!

~Isaac Watts, "Divine Songs"

The bees and the butterflies have been abundant in the garden this Fall. These bumble bees were feasting on my Pentas and buzzing up a storm.

825 MILES

The Sunshine State has 825 miles of sandy beaches. Today residents and visitors walked all of those 825 miles one mile at a time and took pictures of their favorite mile of beach. Resulting in what may be the biggest beach walk in the world. The photos are all posted on line at http://www.visitfloridabeachwalk.com/miles.php    Check out all of the beautiful photos of Florida's coastline.

I walked with four friends along mile 44, Navarre Beach. Here is some of what we saw along the way.  

Sunrise over the Dunes.

My group arrived early--7 a.m.--and it was a very cold morning. The temps were in the low 40s and the wind was out of the North. Brrrr. The only saving grace was that the sunrise was spectacular.

Sunrise--Gulfside

Never have I seen such a low tide on the Gulf as we saw this morning. It gave the beach an unfamiliar, but lovely look.

A river runs through it.

 Because the tide was so low, the newly exposed sand was littered with Jellyfish.

As the tide came back in the jellyfish began to 'awaken' and move back out to sea.

The beach was also littered with seashells.

This great blue heron decided to stop wading and take to the air.

And flew right past me.

Our happy group at Mile Marker 44. You can see from our attire it was a cold morning. I'm the one in the funny hat and sunglasses.                                                                                     

DON'T GET YOUR HEAD WET

A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn't act that way very often. 

 ~Author Unknown

There was a young couple walking on the beach with their little girl who looked to be about 3 or 4 years old. The mother kept telling her not to get her shoes wet, but, of course, little by little the young girl inched ever closer to the water.  Mom kept warning and the tot kept inching. The outcome was inevitable. The child got too close to the water and an aggressive wave not only covered her shoes, but knocked her down onto her fanny. Her shoes were wet, her little shorts were wet and her t-shirt was wet. I waited for her to start crying but instead she sat there for a moment stunned and then she turned to look at her mom, who was hurrying to reach her, and said "oops" and then dissolved in giggles. It made me smile and want to sit down right next to her. Her mom and dad shook their heads and got her back on her now very wet feet. They had a hard time hiding their smiles and looking appropriately stern. Then the Dad said something we often said to my son, that made me smile even more. "You always have to learn the hard way." Oh, I think life is going to be interesting for this little family.

Are you listening to me? Don't get your head wet!

Do you hear me? 

Don't test me.

Oh ...

That i'd be a no.

DETERMINATION

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.  

~Albert Einstein

Out in back of one of our favorite beach eateries in RI, they dispose of opened and supposedly empty clam shells, much to the delight of the indigenous sea gulls. No morsel is wasted. As I munched on clam cakes and clam chowder, I watched a very determined gull excavate the shells and come up a winner. It took him a while, but his determination paid off.

I know its in there. Just a little further.

 Okay, here it comes.

 That's what I'm talking about. Good thing I like a challenge.