Kelp-on-a-rock

Only one day off Sandy and I'd forgotten how good a beach smells.

They smell best when a lot of seaweed has washed up, for a day or two, anyway. I was flaneuring along the strand, picking up the things in this photo, and at the same time wondering how I could convey in SBA, for those who can't get to the beach often, how kelp can attach itself to rocks and get washed in, rock and all, in high seas such as we have today.

I was thinking I might have to bring home a kelp attached to a rock the size of half a house brick, a common enough finding on the beach, and not relishing the thought. That's when I found the cute lil one in the photo. the kelp is a few days past its prime and not good for eating or even having inside your cabin. Not to put too fine a point on it, it pongs to high heaven and it's now outside The Ponderosa. But it's a perfect thumbnail of the big kelp-rocks that can be washed up right to the high-tide mark.

Cute lil shells, huh? (Sorry about the crummy webcam shot.) There's an online shell identification service here which I will place in my links list in the sidebar for all of us.

The bubba sea urchin in the picture at top came from a mass of kelp about 600cm high, at the rocks down the south end. It's the only one I saw but apparently in the last day or so there have been dozens of them washed in. This one was minus its meaty creature on the inside, so he can stay indoors with me in the cabin, with the shell collection.