Summer plugs

There are people and products I support

and now seems like as good a time as any to plug a few.

But NOT the fresh raccoon and possum.  That's a seasonal product 

and I don't really think summer is the best season for it.

I've always plugged this book as the authority on anything you might find on the beach in Florida

but I've been through it backwards and forwards and still can't ID this "seed pod."

     I had a scant 2 weeks before the 3 stepsons arrived at my house to continue their summer-long Dr. Who marathon so I jumped at the chance to go scalloping with my favorite Homossassa fishing guide, Captain Mike Baize.

He's personable, dependable and knowledgeable; important traits 

when you're paying to be out on the water with someone.

     Here I am, showing off part of the haul.  I had to use the laptop photo program to blur out the bizarrely deep grooves I always get whenever I wear a dive mask.  Trust me, had I not smoothed out the mask marks, you'd never have been able to look at the scallops, instead, wondering if I was recovering from face transplant surgery.

If you ever get a chance to go scalloping

another service I highly recommend are the shuckers who set up shop around the boat ramp.

These little nuggets will end up being the most expensive scallops of your life

but then, it isn't really about the scallops, is it?  It's the whole experience.

     No trip to Homossassa is complete for me without a visit to the little Pepper Creek Pottery shop.  I'm on a slow, methodical mission to replace all my plates and bowls with a mix of their wares.  They also have a great selection of coffee mugs, art jugs, and a really cool manatee piggy bank that has "Nephew's Christmas Present" written all over it.  The last time I visited the shop, one of the proprietors, Angela, and I had a nice talk about fossils which inspired her to create a bowl just for me!

She pressed fossils into the band of clay around the outside of the bowl, fired it, 

and it's been on a shelf waiting for my return.  What a great surprise!

And now I have to plug myself...

(maybe "promote" would be a better word to use)

The holidays season and fossil festivals will start taking place in a few months so

I've been hard at work, creating a variety of Peace River fossil necklaces.

Nice!  if I do say so myself. ;-)