Rays!

I was able to capture a couple of quick shots of Rays this morning as they hunted along the eastern shoreline of Pensacola Beach.


They are beautiful and graceful to watch glide through the water. September and October seem to be the time they frequent our area most.

If I had a dollar...

If I had a dollar for every time I dreamed of walking quietly on a beautiful beach...

And if I had a dollar for every time I dreamed of living on an island...

And if I had a dollar for every time I dreamed of actually owning a home in Paradise (Pensacola Beach)...

Dollars such as these would still be the most cherished in my pocket.

[P.S. Dreams do come true.]

Blue on blue

An incredible day on Pensacola Beach. The water is still crystal clear and various shades of blue and green, making it easy to spot groups of rays gliding smoothly below the surface.


The sky is vivid blue with trails of cirrus clouds, the humidity is comfortable and low, and life is incredibly good for anyone on Pensacola Beach today.

Home again

It's always wonderful to be home again, especially when you live in Paradise! What a beautiful day on Pensacola Beach.

Autumn on the island

How do you know when autumn has arrived on a barrier island?


It is when this photo


Becomes this photo!

Brief absence

A note to my blog viewers that I had to make a sudden trip to Tennessee last week due to my father's illness and will not be able to post for a few days. Hopefully I will return by mid-week.

Tiniest of creatures

Except for a quick movement I caught out of the corner of my eye, I would have completely missed this tiniest of creatures on the beach. He was virtually transparent and no longer than a fingernail.

"It is not for us to demonstrate respectful dominance over those creatures, but only respect."

~~ Richard Ellis, biologist, author.

Fifty Cents

"No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen."

~~ Minor White

"Indescribably lovely"

"Indescribably lovely. Truly heaven on earth, I thought more than once as I walked west toward Ft. Pickens in the sunny solitude of this unpopulated part of the island. The variegated aqua water was as clear as I've seen it in seven summers, and seemed to stretch on to unknown horizons."


"I saw dolphins jumping at a distance, rays hunting inshore, and small birds zipping by in swift, hushed flocks mere inches above the water. An amateur fisherperson had caught a 'needle fish' and was cutting it loose "so he can live". It was just a delightful gift of a day, full of visual treasures to remember in November."

~~ L.L's message from Pensacola Beach

[Many thanks to my friend, Linda, who also lives here on the beach. She sent me a copy of a paragraph she'd written to another friend in Pennsylvania, describing how beautiful our weather is right now. It visually captured a day on the beach so perfectly that I asked if I could quote her on my blog.]

Jelly Belly

I saw more jellyfish on the shore today than I've ever seen before! Good thing I watch where I step.


This shot shows more than a jellyfish washed up on the shore. It proves that our sand really is sugar white! One jelly belly with sugar on top, please.

[So maybe this isn't really a Jelly's belly. It's probably his back, but what's the fun in saying that!]

The Bouquet

Today I saw a beautiful bouquet that reminded me of life's ever-changing journey.


Like a hand's grasp of hydrangeas, we adapt as best we can to the acidity or akalinity which sometimes unexpectantly rearranges our lives.


The sun shifts, the shade grows, and though we struggle against change, we adapt.


While the colors of our life may fade, as sure as spring follows winter, a delicate blush will become rich and vibrant, reaching out to envelope us again.



Though a bouquet is rearranged and its hues and tones shifted by time, beauty survives. Though not the same as we first gathered, or first arranged, we love it the same -- just differently.

Crystal clear!

The end of September is a spectacular time on Pensacola Beach. Both the water and air temperature have dropped and the seaweed has washed back out to sea.


The water is crystal clear as it washes over our sugar-white sand. The ribbons of color across the Gulf of Mexico are incredible.

The bird and me

"At first we walked, the bird and me,
And struck a wary truce.
He did not fly, but stayed nearby,
Believing me obtuse.


"And then we talked, the bird and me,
He seemed to like the chat.
Content we were, to share our time
I spoke of this and that.


"But in the end, the bird and me,
We went our separate ways
Me, with a sigh, to watch him glide
Above the ocean spray."

~~ Barrier Island Girl

A quiet moment

Sometimes the most important thing is a deep breath and a quiet moment.

A beach wedding

I love weddings on the beach. This morning I discovered the remnants of one, and its simple romantic beauty made me smile. Bright flowers to symbolize a happy future and yards of windblown tulle must have given an ethereal effect at sunset. Can you imagine the vast blue horizon as background for the ceremony, while your eyes are drawn in to focus on a happy young couple. What special memories everyone took home with them.

"I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance,
A church filled with family and friends.
I asked him what kind of a wedding he wished for,
He said one that would make me his wife."

~~Author Unknown



"Love one another, but make not a bond of love;
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

~~ Kahlil Gibran

Silent skies

"...a landscape whose wide border lies in silent shade 'neath silent skies...”

-- Horatio Nelson Powers

To Priscilla

"When we have done all the work we were sent to do, we are allowed to shed our bodies, which imprisons our soul like a cocoon encloses the butterfly and when the time is right we can let go of it. Then we will be free of pain, free of fears and free of worries-- free as a beautiful butterfly returning home to God..."

-- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Here on the island

"Here on the island I find I can sit with a friend without talking, sharing the day's last sliver of pale green light on the horizon, or the whorls in a small white shell, or the dark scar left in a dazzling night sky by a shooting star. Then communication becomes communion and one is nourished as one never is by words."

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Hermit in the Moon Shell

"Moon shell, who named you? Some intuitive woman I like to think...You will sit there and fasten your single eye upon me. You will make me think, with your smooth circles winding inward to the tiny core, of the island I lived on for a few weeks. You will say to me 'solitude.'"

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Bee happy!

Don't worry! Bee happy!



"Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.
The dark days are gone, and the bright days are here,
My Sunny one shines so sincere.Sunny one so true, I love you."

-- Bobby Hebb



"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

-- [Margaret] Storm Jameson