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Today I learned some new things.
Jul. 7th, 2021 09:32 pmMy beach walk at home is very different from my Ipswich beach walk... not just in the trash factor, but in the eco system itself. We have periwinkles, dog winkles, mud snails, soft shelled clams (know as steamers in culinary terns) Quahogs, and hard shell clams. There is also a small translucent clam isa shaped shell that looks like it is mother of pearl. No one I know knew what they were. Some people thought that the fell out of an oyster.
Today I was reading a book called Ocean Wisdom and it describes the meaning of shells and has some drawings of shells. One drawing looked similar to these mother of pearl looking shell. From the name given in the book I was able to track down the Atlantic version. They are called Jingle shells or mermaid's toe nails. FIN. The Jingle shell is because when you put some together they are supposed to jingle like coins. I now need to get someone try it. I do like the name. AS for the mermaid's toenails...umm...mermaids don't have toes. ;-P
The other thing I learned was that shells from beaches with rough surf are generally thicker/harder than places with more gentle waves. It makes sense as I noticed that the moon snail shells I picked up last week are thicker than the ones I have from Ipswich.
A third thing I learned was that Moon Snails fill themselves up with water to look bigger. Sometimes the snail's body covers the shell. I also learned that the must squeeze out all that water to get back inside their shell. In a lesson sense the Moon snail tells us that things are being blown out of proportion and you need to get rid of the exaggeration to get home =)
On a more terrestrial note I saw my first Monarch today. I was worried that they wouldn't come since teh butterfly bush is starting to bloom 3 weeks early from last week's 100 degree temps.
Today I was reading a book called Ocean Wisdom and it describes the meaning of shells and has some drawings of shells. One drawing looked similar to these mother of pearl looking shell. From the name given in the book I was able to track down the Atlantic version. They are called Jingle shells or mermaid's toe nails. FIN. The Jingle shell is because when you put some together they are supposed to jingle like coins. I now need to get someone try it. I do like the name. AS for the mermaid's toenails...umm...mermaids don't have toes. ;-P
The other thing I learned was that shells from beaches with rough surf are generally thicker/harder than places with more gentle waves. It makes sense as I noticed that the moon snail shells I picked up last week are thicker than the ones I have from Ipswich.
A third thing I learned was that Moon Snails fill themselves up with water to look bigger. Sometimes the snail's body covers the shell. I also learned that the must squeeze out all that water to get back inside their shell. In a lesson sense the Moon snail tells us that things are being blown out of proportion and you need to get rid of the exaggeration to get home =)
On a more terrestrial note I saw my first Monarch today. I was worried that they wouldn't come since teh butterfly bush is starting to bloom 3 weeks early from last week's 100 degree temps.
