High tide wrack lines...
Treasures from the Sea...
Bleached by the sun...
Gathered from the shore...
Sitting in a shell...
Beauty on my windowsill...
Treasures from the Sea...
Bleached by the sun...
Gathered from the shore...
Sitting in a shell...
Beauty on my windowsill...
Atlantic Rock Crabs... Cancer irroratus... marine arthropod... crustacean class... grow up to 13 cm. or 5¼" across the carapace, the crabs thick defensive shield...
A body enclosed in an armor casing of tough protein called Chitin... This exoskeleton must be periodically shed to permit growth...
Found in intertidal and subtidal waters... on rocky and sandy seashores... among kelp beds
Carapace varies in color from red to purple.... underside is pale white/gray to yellowish
13 comments:
Gwen ... you have an uncanny eye for the incredible things that nature offers and it never ceases to amaze me. Puts me in mind of that song..."Just another ordinary miracle today!" Way cool image. Is the shell they're in an actual shell or a dish made in a shell shape?
hey thanks Marie, the shell is an actual scallop shell. During scallop season we find lots scattered on the beaches... I use them for all kinds of things... soap dishes... candle holders... little individual paint dishes for my watercolors when I run out of room in my palette.. my older son, Zachary, used to paint on them.. you can even eat out of them...anything you want...
probably the biggest I ever found was about 7" across..
Sigh.
These are lovely. they look so quite and peaceful, I like guite...
I love peaceful!
So once they're bleached like this, I assume there ain't no flesh inside no more? Hehe.
So they're like shells that can just sit out, artfully?
The scallop shell as a plate is great.
yes the little gifts left on the seashore have no guts in them ..no more, Ruth!! haha I guess the original owners are crawling around out there in their new bigger outfits... although we have found a few with their innerds that the seagulls only ate halfway... we don't bring them home
Actually these crab shells were in much better condition when they first came home.. They have dried out to this cracked state merely from sitting in the hot south facing window... they are quite fragile now...
Anet, I always feel the same way when I am sitting amongst the remnents of the tide by the ocean and listening to the lapping of the waves.. peace and serenity...
Beautiful; they're so elegant!
I dunno, I think the added time-wear makes them even lovelier. But then, I like old, worn things.
That's really interesting - I've never seen an intact crab shell on the beach here with legs and all. They're always just the back of the body part, usually even missing the belly covering part, which I'm assuming is the way that the seagulls eat them. Beautiful.
Gwen, interestingly, I went to a reading today of 5 of our graduating seniors, presenting a synopsis if their senior theses. One student, whom I just love, Marissa, read her essay about catching these crabs on a North Carolina beach. I told her afterward how much I liked her essay, and how nice it was to hear about her adventure when I'd just seen your crabs here.
I love old worn things too Ruth ... something precious about them...
laura I think the lines of the little creatures are what make them lovely to look at.. but then again it is the skeleton on the outside and I can never resist those bones...
Sherrieg.. maybe there are more on the beaches here because the wharf is nearby and the little guys must crawl into the lobster traps and use them for friction to remove their too small shell... just a guess...
Here we are talking about little crabs.. funny huh... such little creatures give so much pleasure... alive and with what they leave behind... so cool that one of your students wrote on it too.
Six degress of separation.. of Crabs... haha
I really love that kind of treasure!
I adore all things from the sea:shells,seastars,corals,crabs,even stones..my home was and now my new home is decorated with sea treasure..
Have a nice weekend with your family.Gwen!
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