The only way to live well in the sweltering Florida climate is to have cool water to jump into close by. For most, that means a backyard swimming pool. These days, many homeowners choose to have a salt-water pool. If this doesn’t sound appealing, then read on. I’m about to change your mind.
First, if you have a normal pool with fresh water, you will know that it must be maintained with chlorine. There are various ways to add chlorine to the water, but if you don’t maintain the pH of the water, it will turn green. Swimming in it will be unhealthy. Too much chlorine and it will smell, and getting water in your eyes will sting.
When I lived in Florida we had a typical in-ground pool and we bought big chlorine tablets to add to the water filter. We tested the water to check the safety and often had a lot of trouble clearing up the green, which happened often after it rained. Anyone who has such a pool, will be familiar with having to “shock” it occasionally. Chemicals are added to bring the pH back to normal.
I had already left Florida to live in the northeast by the time salt-water pools were becoming popular. Since then I have gone back to Florida to visit and had the opportunity to swim in a salt-water pool. It was lovely. Continue reading “Salt Water in Your Backyard Swimming Pool”
Have you heard about the HGTV Dream House giveaway? Well, I am entering the contest over and over because it would be perfect for me.
The house itself is not really my taste, but it’s location is worth everything. And the winner gets a boat and a lovely dock with pretty lights along the boardwalk. I would live in a tent to be on that piece of land!
The Dream House is located on Merritt Island, near the Canaveral seashore / space center (Florida’s east coast). It is on the Intracoastal Waterway / Banana River, which is exactly where I’d love to live. Our new fishing business needs such a location, but living on the water is a dream that is out of reach for us. That is why winning this house giveaway is a must! Continue reading “The Florida Dream Home Giveaway I Plan to Win”
When I began this blog, many years ago, I was not much of a writer. The fun of blogging was new to me, and boy did I have a lot to learn. My first blog was created at Google blogger, but I found that platform difficult to learn. Once I was introduced to WordPress I never looked back. This blog was my first one here at WP.
When I started Seashells by Millhill, I knew next to nothing about blogging, or seashells. I had just opened my seashell photography store, and related wedding stationery store. While creating tropical wedding stationery, from my own seashell pictures, I realized that I had finally taken more of an interest in those shells sitting in a bowl.
Although I presently live in New Hampshire, I had lived just north of Orlando, Florida for 27 years. My family made many trips to the beautiful Florida beaches and we (the kids mostly) collected a lot of seashells (horseshoe crab skeletons, crab claws, driftwood and coquina) over the years. Most of those treasures from the sea ended up in my outdoor gardens, or decorating my many potted plants. The best and most interesting shells were put into glass bowls. It was just the Florida way. I never gave much thought to seashells.
A Bowl of Seashells
Once I began writing about my seashell collection I had to take a crash course in identifying them. I bought books, read blogs, and searched for pictures, to learn all I could relating to mollusks and the intricate homes they carried with them under the sea. I still learn something new whenever I write about marine life.
Along the way I misspelled names of mollusks. The Junonia was one, but I can’t recall what I used to call it. The Lighting Whelk is another. I mistakenly thought it was a “lightning whelk” – like the flash in the sky. So old posts on this blog will name shells incorrectly, and I apologize. Making corrections for all the old posts of years gone by is time-consuming. I work online 7 days a week, usually close to 10 hours a day, so making all those corrections is impossible.
Usually when I come across my oldest posts I cringe. The writing is horrible and the posts are too short. Now, many links are bad (thanks Squidoo), so a simple correction becomes a 10 minute chore. Categories and tags were not done correctly, since I didn’t understand how to use them. My reference to Squidoo is because it was the first writing site I joined. I did so to link back to my Zazzle stores. I also linked to those articles from this blog – a lot! Then, Squidoo went away. Articles had to be moved (mine are now at Wizzley), and all links to the site no longer work. So I apologize for that as well. I’m slowly changing the old, bad links, but there are many.
Another thing I began doing was to offer free, printable coloring pages. I supplied my own drawings of seashells for anyone to use, just for fun, or homeschool classrooms.
I’ve become a better writer with all this practice, but writing is not what I love to do. Usually one day a week I will get the urge to post to my blogs, but most of the time I am creating products for my stores and then promoting the items. It’s my livelihood, so it takes precedence over giving advice on seashell collecting and vacationing on Florida beaches.
Thanks to all who visit here and read my articles. Forgive my mistakes and badly written pages, please. I hope you have gained as much knowledge as I have about the seashells we love to collect.
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