blooms of sea jellies

A chatty man on the beach this morning warned that if the jellie gets on you it “will raise a welt like a branding iron that will be with you for a long time.” He has been here for over five weeks and never seen the likes of what greeted us on our morning walk. Apparently, “the presence of ocean blooms is usually seasonal, responding to prey availability and increasing with temperature and sunshine. Ocean currents tend to congregate jellyfish into large swarms or "blooms", consisting of hundreds or thousands of individuals.”  

We saw hundreds at the very least and were quite carefully watching our every step.

A random lifeguard jeep motoring on the sand left a sound wake similar to a child popping bubble wrap. 

 

Some of the jellies were nestled, looking quite comfortable, among the seaweeds.

 

 

 

Others seemed to hoping for a quick ride back from whence they came. We also saw many spinning along  in the water having obtained their desire.

 

 

We returned to the condo much sooner than Doug would have liked…to accommodate my Spanish lesson.

After that,  I took our first tennis set 7-5. Only just yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t experienced any muscle failure as we played. My arm is getting very close to fully healed. It is a huge blessing that I don’t take for granted any day.

For obvious reasons the words to this song have been in my head

Jellicle Ball

If it happens to be a stormy night
We will practice a caper or two in the hall
If it happens the sun is shining bright
You would say we had nothing to do at all
We are resting and saving ourselves to be right
For the jellicle moon and the jellicle ball.