Sunday, May 02, 2010

Peanut Butter and Jelly

On a past canoe ride off Long Boat Key in Florida my husband and I re-established a long ago pattern of behavior that we established in our early married years when we reached a remote beach (after we did the other things that newlyweds do on remote beaches ;-)).  


I am the poker and prodder and explorer and he is the fisherman.  Therefore, we found a small mangrove island with a tiny beach and he promptly off-loaded me with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and camera and he headed out to the open water to catch fish.  Which he did.  He caught a nice sized sea-trout for our dinner that night.



Above against the far shoreline in the middle of the photo, that tiny white dot is the husband in canoe. (You can click on the photo if you do not believe me ;-).)





In the meantime I perused the graveyard of whelks that covered the nearby ocean floor.  These are so skeleton-like you need to click on the photo for a fuller experience.  I even found a few nice whelks and horseshoe crabs (dead) to bring home for a memory.








Then I saw this little bronze flower drifting along with the current and I can tell you that trying to capture the photo of a jellyfish from the top of the water looking down is most challenging.  The jellyfish pumps, the waves push and distort and the photographer tries not to step on anything sharp or fall and drop the little camera.  Although I could not identify this species, it was not one with tendrils to sting.  I certainly did not pick him up to test.





So exotic and so primitive, this life form that drifts and goes with the flow of the earth on its constant journey.  Volcanoes in Iceland and hurricanes in Florida all leave him unimpressed as he goes with the slow evolutionary flow and not against the demanding current.

11 comments:

  1. Oh, what a wonderful adventure! And a honeymoon to boot! We lived in Florida back in the 70's and I can still remember those beautiful warm waters around the Keys. Do tell.

    Great pictures!

    Oh my, I just thought of the oil spill in the Gulf and how all this might change!

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  2. Anonymous12:05 PM

    I keep wondering how you cooked the fish that night. Did you have a camp stove or did you make a fire with sticks and twigs and use a frying pan?

    On 2nd thought, you probably went home. LOL.

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  3. Yes. Gigihawaii, we went back to the condo where we were staying. BUT I have spent many a night cooking over a camp fire on a lonely island.

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  4. very cool. we used to go to fort desoto beach and dive for sand dollars and well anything we could find to fascinate my son...col adventure...

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  5. What wonderful memories you have - and are still making.
    Thank you for sharing.

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  6. So, was the poking, prodding and exploring the newlywed stuff?

    I did enlarge the photograph but still could not identify your spouse in a canoe.

    What a terrific time you must have had. However, I think I would have been afraid to be left there alone especially with that graveyard. Wow, the picture at first glance, looks like a pile of bones.

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  7. Oh Granny you do have a way with words! lol

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  8. Thank you for the trip to the beach! I havn't made my first yet this year as the weather has finally begun to calm down.

    Love the shells, the best things in life are free... well, almost always!!!!

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  9. Wow-- this was so stinking cool! I loved the pictures, the whole outing idea. Thank you for posting this. (I have an idea for my bday getaway now...)

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  10. Super. Really lovely. I could read posts like that all day - they are very rare in Blogland. The text and images were both excellent. A most enjoyable read.

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  11. Sounds like a great day. I should do that with my husband but I'm always scared the boat will die and we'll be stranded

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Glad to hear from you once again. I really like these visits. Come sit on this log and tell me what you are thinking.