Another Step Closer ... plus Beachy Keen!

Somehow I missed taking pictures after getting the little charmies painted black ... ah well. Once black I felt like they were missing something ...

POLKA DOTS!

yep, that's right ... first I tried using ye ole standard tiny round paint brush, but it was rough going, so I flipped it around and used the butt of the brush ... mucho betterer. Here's a close up of the front and back:

Next step ... gloss. High gloss. I think that'll do the trick.

Next up ... photo's from Monday's treck out to the beach. I thought there would be neat things due to the recent storms & only wish I had planned tide timing better ... I thought I was going at low tide, but it seemed pretty high to me ... then again, that could be due to Ike.

--- click on the below pictures (any picture for that matter) to see a larger version ---

this crab carcass looked like it had been planted there and posed like that ... I just really like the way it's splayed and its colors against the color of the sand and shells ... take a closer look at the postion of the front claws ... what does it look like to you?

then I came across this bit of ocean vegetation ... the color of it was amazingly rich and deep. Plus, the little hitch-hiker was pretty cool, too.

The most surprising find was a handful of urchins scattered here and there. I have never seen any urchins on my beach visits, so this was a rare treat ... I couldn't help but snap a few shots and take a closer look:

and then I thought to roll it over (with a shell, of course) and discovered this little critter was still alive ... I don't know the proper thing to do when you come across a beached urchin ... are you supposed to leave them there to get eaten by birds or dried out? or put them back in the ocean? since I didn't have a naturalist handy, I did what felt right & returned him to the gulf (along with three of the four others I came across - the fourth was unquestionably lifeless, so I brought it home with me ...).

It was a gorgeous day and there weren't many people out, which is always a bonus.

What kind of fun things have you been up to?