Fiji Beans

My friends Edie and Maree brought me a treasure trove of beans from their trip to the Fiji islands.

Some were easily recognizable like this candlenut.

Others were specimens I have wanted ever since I saw my first one. This is a box fruit and when I saw one on display at the Padre Island National Seashore visitor center I knew it would be on my list.

This was another excellent find - a screw pine seed. It is part of a large seed that looks like a pineapple.


I think this is a crabwood.

This interesting seed is called Cerbera odollan. I haven't found it's common name yet.

These are similar to sea hearts but are a different variety called snuff box beans.

These are likely not drift seeds but instead are seeds from a local beach plant.

This may be a sea pea.

These are some nice laurelwoods.

This is the Asian swamp lily.

These are some intact tropical almonds. Most of what I find are not in this good shape.

Last but not least are these three beans that resemble hamburger beans. I have some work ahead of me to see what they will look like after polishing!


These are yet unidentified so I will keep looking until I solve the mystery.

Finally Found Some Beans

I love starting off a post with a sunset picture.

We took a ride to the beach and finally found some beans!

I found a brown nickarnut. These look like they are already polished.

This coconut has been drifting a long time as evidenced by the sealife growing in the cracks of its husk.

This shot is not a sea bean but it is cool nonetheless. Have you ever tracked a snake?

Tracy found her own hamburger bean.

We found some pecans, water hickorys, and other common beans.

Some rig worker likely wondered what happened to this.

Will the Stormy Weather Bring Beans?

This year has been a tough one for Texas Sea Beaners. There just haven't been any beans. The recent stormy weather promised to change the luck but all it produced was some cool pictures at the beach.

We had to keep an eye on the sky and not wander too far from the Jeep.

We searched high up in the wrack line near the dunes.

We also searched the wrack closer to the surf left by the last high tide. No beans!

February Beaning

Beans, Barnacles & Bones

I'm bad about picking up trash on the beach.

One think I can't seem to pass up is a bone especially if it is fossilized or unique.

Here are some of the recent finds along with some barnacles and driftwood.


The beans of the day include a swamp lilly (top), some palms, a heart, and a candlenut along with a square chunk of jet.

Happy New Year

Well, 2010 is here and what better way to enjoy the day then to take a walk on the beach.

I treasure the times I can listen to the pulse of the surf and let my mind free to think about the great blessings we have in Christ and to enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

This scarecrow must have stayed up till midnight waiting on the New Year.

You never know what you may find in the quest for beans on the beach. This snake skeleton made an interesting sight in the sand.

A single blade of cord grass whipped out this trench as the wind tickled it across the sand.

Even this little bird was dragging his toes as he made his way home.

This mermaid's purse was half buried.

I found several cool beans this day including a Mary's bean, two hearts, some burgers and palms, and an antidote vine seed. Also, I picked up some shells and coral and one coconut to add to the collection at the nature center.

Here are the non-bean treasures.

National Seashore

Matt and Carly were home for Christmas and one thing we had planned was a trip to South Texas for a little King's Inn seafood. We made it a road trip and on the way back after lunch we stopped off at the Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) near Corpus Christi.

First stop - the Visitor's Center. I was eager to see what they had on display.

In addition to lots of printed materials, the folks at PINS had a nice collection of beach treasures including a whole dolphin skeleton, shells, and lots of beans.

Here is the master teacher at work with two willing students.

Some of the day's finds included starfish, branch coral, barnacles, sand dollars, and worm casings.

Searching along the high dunes of PINS.

The shells in the middle are called turkey wings. You can also see some of the fresh sand dollars.

Here is the difference between fresh and cleaned/dried/bleached sand dollars.

I found my first wood rose seed (left) which looks a lot like a railroad vine seed (right) but is much bigger. Both are closely related to the Mary's Bean - in morning glory family.

Here is one last look at the display table. One of the big seeds on top is a box fruit - I want to find one of those!