Gulf Coast Sunsets...

Monday...

Tuesday...

Wednesday...

Thursday...

Friday...

Every sunset was a celebration...

Beach Message...

Beach Message 33
by William Torphy

So when
the sun
runs completely
through your body
and there is left
nothing but laughter
and when the sky
has become
your pleasure-dome
and there is nothing
but infinity of blueness.
So when this water
has washed your mind
completely clean
and the ocean
becomes your Mother
and when the hot sand
turns a pallet
under your soul
a warm embrace
of earth and ground.
Then when the air
surrounds your being
and the atmosphere
of allness echoes within
then do you know
why you came here
to love, feel, marvel
fold within yourself
your own truest nature.
-Mazatlan

from Love Never Always

Rays and Gulls...

I've been saving my ray and gull pictures for Theme Thursday...

At least half of my Florida vacation pictures are of seagulls...but just before heading home this pod of rays swam up the beach...close enough to touch...

The seagulls seem to enjoy posing for cameras...

Garden of Dishes...

How could I not fall in love with this garden found near the house we rented in Florida?

I should mention that I have a tendency to buy lots of dishes at flea markets...

Beach Sand...

There is nothing quite like playing in nature's sand box...

The sand on Anna Maria Island is hard packed, fine, and white...

...carved by the wind...



...and the waves...





..to look like dunes...




...and dessert sand castles...

Or carved by human hand...

...to resemble entire castle towns...


...in a beachy paradise...

Florida...

From sunrise...

to sunset....

each day of our stay at the beach was a gift to enjoy...Our first day in Florida was chilly but it wasn't the 10 inches of snow we were getting at home!