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Nothing delights the senses as much as shells. They are beautiful to look at & a delight to hold.
I have a large collection: cowries and cones, eagles wings, bonnet shells, china men's hats, cat's eyes, angle's wings; smooth & not so smooth, dull, shiny, spiky. God has created an enormous variety. These are like magnets to any child who spots them. Instinctively they reach out to touch, feeling the rich textured surfaces, arranging & rearranging them in beautiful & intricate pattens.
Where have we got them all from? Well most of my family are 'boaties'. They live aboard a yatch for at least part of their year & cruise the Australian coastline. Sometimes we join them for a while though in all honesty I dislike salt water. It itches. Others of us live along the coastline. Whichever we do we are inveterate beachcombers, walking vast stretches of beach with our eyes glued to the sand under our feet looking for a perfect unbroken shell. Some of my more unusual shells are courtesy of my middle son who worked the W.A trawlers & brought home some of the stranger things that came up in the nets.
My Ditz & I did a bit of a homeschool study on shells to learn about how they are formed ~ which is disgusting really. Sluggy mollusks secrete a calcium slime (I told you it was disgusting) around themselves & this grows into the beautiful shells that are found all over the world. You didn't need to know that, did you?
Nothing delights the senses as much as shells. They are beautiful to look at & a delight to hold.
I have a large collection: cowries and cones, eagles wings, bonnet shells, china men's hats, cat's eyes, angle's wings; smooth & not so smooth, dull, shiny, spiky. God has created an enormous variety. These are like magnets to any child who spots them. Instinctively they reach out to touch, feeling the rich textured surfaces, arranging & rearranging them in beautiful & intricate pattens.
Where have we got them all from? Well most of my family are 'boaties'. They live aboard a yatch for at least part of their year & cruise the Australian coastline. Sometimes we join them for a while though in all honesty I dislike salt water. It itches. Others of us live along the coastline. Whichever we do we are inveterate beachcombers, walking vast stretches of beach with our eyes glued to the sand under our feet looking for a perfect unbroken shell. Some of my more unusual shells are courtesy of my middle son who worked the W.A trawlers & brought home some of the stranger things that came up in the nets.
My Ditz & I did a bit of a homeschool study on shells to learn about how they are formed ~ which is disgusting really. Sluggy mollusks secrete a calcium slime (I told you it was disgusting) around themselves & this grows into the beautiful shells that are found all over the world. You didn't need to know that, did you?
18 comments:
That's interesting how the shells are formed! Isn't it just like God who exchanges our yuckiness for something beautiful?! I liked the spiked one in the middle picture. I am partial to sand Dollars!
Have a great weekend!
Connie
What lovely seashells. I can imagine looking at them reminds you so dearly of those lovely times at the shore.
Thank you for sharing your collection!
Gina
Hi Ganeida, what a neat collection of shells.. I would never learn the names for them..Thanks for sharing them with us and for visiting my place today..Have a great week-end.
Who woulda thought that out of slime could come such beauty!
Cool collection and great education!
Diane
Nice collection.
Susan
Hmmmmmmmmmm, I'll take this one, and that one....and oh that one over there!!! I do love seashells.
My show n tell is posted....drop by if you can, I'd love to have you visit, if you haven't already!!!
I love shells -- so pretty. They remind me of when I used to live near the beach.
I had no idea that was how shells are formed! You have a beautiful collection. Growing up we would go to the coast every summer and collecting shells was a favorite thing for us to do. Thanks for sharing!
Sandra
You mean shells are formed from slime? Ach, you've ruined my day!!
If I lived near a place where I
could collect shells I would have
a lot of them. Natures Bounty!
I just love your collection of shells! I've been to the ocean only once and didn't see any sea shells...Thanks for sharing!
That is really neat! I love shells. I have rarely been to the ocean, but when I have been, I scour the beach too. It's like going on a treasure hunt.
Connie, the spiked one is one that came up in Dino's nets so it was a long way down in the ocean. The spiral with white stripes under it is so rare (or so Dino says) it's not even named. That's another of his.
So pretty!
We used to live within 3 hours of the ocean and would go once a year or so. I have a few shells. I've heard that most shells curve the same direction, and rarely you'll find one curving the other way. I have one that goes the other way, but it is broken in one place.
I also liked your spiky one. :-)
I love shells too, and we have several collections displayed in the house - they are so tactile, and so pleasing to the eye. I've never seen a Chinaman's hat before, but I can see why it got its name. We love browsing the shoreline too, but nothing exiting here - Sea Potatoes are about as exotic as it gets!
Cowries are my favourites and the ones I still collect when I get the chance, though I still wince when I remember a childhood visit to Fiji when I innocently told a fisherman that I'd love some tiger cowries. I was mortified when he brought several in from the reef with their molluscs still inside!! However, they were dead by then, and I began an interesting round of motel gardens on the island, burying my cowries (unobtrusively) when we checked in, so that nature could do its work, and disinterring them before we checked out. As it was, my mother forbade my installing the smellier specimens in our baggage for the voyage home.
Siano
Siano, my love, I'm so pleased you popped in. I was wondering where you'd got to & if everything was alright.
Yeah, we had the same thing happen in Fiji only the maid took them & buried them & then boiled them to get rid of the smell. I couldn't do it now but back then...I've upset the kids by making them put things back if anything's living in it, but, hey, they wouldn't like being evicted from their home either.
'Specially not if they were going to be buried and boiled ;-)
I'll be up your way again in May -- will be in touch.
Siano
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