A hermit in a turban!

Yes, swim fans, it's not every day one sees a hermit in a turban!

I saw the Turban shell first.  Then it started moving! And it wasn't the waves making it move, but the hermit crab inside! (and in the good news/bad news category: I enjoyed seeing this crab lugging its "house" around, but that probably means that the crab ate the Turban shell animal. And this is the type of shell that gives me the opercula collection! Which probably now has over 2000 opercula in it. Boy, that container is heavy. 

Speaking of operculum, the photo to the left shows the amount of the little things that I found in one weekend. And they are being guarded by a Rabbid. We found this cartoon character while in France. It is an hysterical comic! Check it out on youtube. I think it's French, however, there are only sounds, so you don't need to speak French. Good thing, too: I speak some French, but not enough to understand it when the person is speaking quickly. Which many French folks do..

You will doubtless be wondering if I saw any octopuses: yes! Two! And I was sweating in my dive skin, because it took me over an hour to find the first one. Yes, God and I were having a conversation. (My latest thought is that God is not a vending machine....not my thought, I read it in a book a smart person wrote.)

The photo to the left is what it looked like the first time I saw it. Same octopus, an instant later! It immediately changed to that angry brown color. Its eye is in the center of the shot.

 An urchin for breakfast, anyone? (And, no, I not only wouldn't eat one, I also do not know who did.)

 The light was so lovely. These are clouds ocean-ward from where I swim. Note the 4 rainstorms out there beneath the clouds.

A Christmas Wrasse and some Sergeant Major fish. The latter always hang in a group.

 As do these goat fishes! There are tons of them in the pond lately...the Kiddie Pond, that is.

Two of my favorite puffer fishes: the Ambon Puffer.

 For a terrestrial photo, some nice flowers we find on our walk.

No, there was no octopus that I could see in this hole, but that's what they do: put rocks outside their dens. 

Rock Mover Wrasse. I do love the clown face.

 If you look closely, you'll see the seal and the turtle. Snoozing, I'd guess. Out on the island, where they'll be more alone, although I did see some souls wading out there to take a look. 

 This was a small Spotfin Scorpion fish, hiding under an overhang. At first, I couldn't tell what kind of scorp it was, but the red dots on its back give it away. This fish was probably 4 inches long, including the tail.

Another Spotfin, much larger, though. This was in the middle, where the one above was near the shoreline.

 A surprise Trumpet Fish amongst the Convict Tangs.

And another surprise: as I was standing at the confluence of the Kiddie Pond and the deep side, I noticed a dark shape in the water, which turned out to be a turtle. It took a breath, then below, swam against the rip current to go over into the Kiddie Pond.

 Cigar Wrasse in yellow phase.

Now, don't laugh, but the white parts of this urchin kinda remind me of my husband's whiskers! Only his are grey and white, not all white. Probably feel similar, too. His are cuter than these..

 This tiny Basket shell was about a foot away from an octopus. I didn't pick it up, as they can be kinda heavy and hard to tell if occupied.

 A nice male Trunk (or Box) fish. You can see parts of the water weren't all that clear. But he was very cute and wearing my favorite color, so there you go!

Sadly, none of my pix of this Bubble shell turned out very well. This shell is not only quite pretty, but also very thin. Very breakable. 

 More clouds and waves and rocks.

White mouthed moray eel hiding...waiting for dinner, no doubt.

 And its cousin. Can't tell what type of eel the one below was.

What looks like a sad case of following too close is actually a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse, about to clean the tail of the Bluefin Trevally.

 Octopus #2. Again, I caught a bit of the pretty aqua at the base of its siphon. The eye is right above the white siphon. It closes and opens as they breathe. I once had an octopus on Oahu that liked to spout water at me through its siphon to get me to go away...and I usually did. 

 Another possible den, in which I couldn't see an octopus. They can have a whole "home" in there, as I've seen them blow sand out to make room.

 The resident Leaf Fish. I love the fin above it, resting on the rocks, like a hand.

 Lizard fish for my sweetheart.

A closeup of the scorp's face. 

 A nice rose on our neighbor's bush.

Before you make yourself crazy trying to tell what this is: it's a spider web! Alex found it when he looked outside in the rain this morning. It was adhered to the light stanchion, so the light from the fixture added just enough light to show us the web. And it was doing its job: I saw at least one bug fly in and not come out.

 HAHA. This is one of the set of 5 octopus tentacles that I gave my hubby for Christmas. It's a finger puppet. When you start thinking of octopuses, it is quite amazing the number of items that have an octopus as a theme....shower curtain..goblets...butter knife....wine cork. And of course, rings and earrings. The list is probably endless. I have told people I'm done collecting, but some haven't gotten the news yet. 

Enjoy your weekend. And thanks for reading!