Crabs at the beach!

[Adsos Letter]

Crab:




Crabs:




Beach:




:D

[trusty elf]

1. Crabs are such strange creatures, aren't they!

I don't know that I've even seen them with that kind of camouflaged shell before.

[Adsos Letter]

5. Thanks!

say...I recognize that coin from somewhere...who minted it?

[trusty elf]

9. It's from a Greek colony on the south coast of Sicily,

a place called Acragas.

This particular coin is a modest bronze from the late 5th cent. BC.

The silver coinage of the period is among the most magnificent of all!

:hi:

[trusty elf]

10. I hope you don't mind,

but I couldn't resist showing you a few more coins from Acragas!

A particularly stunning one with the sea-monster Scylla:



Both sides of a somewhat smaller piece:



And this is from a 17th century book on the coins of Sicily:

[Adsos Letter]

11. I don't mind at all !

I have always enjoyed old coins and paper currency; both my father-in-law and my good friend have collections.

Those coins are beautiful, are they from your own collection? :D

What has you so interested in the coinage of Acragas?

:hi:

[trusty elf]

14. I'm glad you like the coins!

The bronze piece is mine, as is the 17th cent. book. The coin with Scylla was for a long time in the collection of the antiquities museum in Basel, Switzerland, and eventually, a few years ago the entire collection, having been only on loan, was auctioned off in Zurich.
I am fascinated by classical antiquity and am in awe of the Greeks' stupendous achievements in art and architecture. They invented coinage as we know it and quickly developed it into an art form that remains unsurpassed today. The western Greeks in southern Italy and Sicily had a distinctive and particularly magnificent style.
It was your crab photos that got me going about Acragas! The crab, along with the eagle, was the city's emblem.

:hi:

[Callalily]

2. Great pics!

And great camouflage. Here's a pic I took when I was in St. Croix (USVI). They are such fun to watch.

[Adsos Letter]

6. Thanks!

Great crab shot...we LOVE the Virgin Islands (especially St. John). Been to St. John and St. Thomas a couple of times but never to St. Croix (although I understand that is where the major rum distilleries are :D )

[NV Whino]

3. Great crab photos

I've never actually seen the critters, just their little blow holes. What beach is that?

[Adsos Letter]

7. Thanks NV Whino...

These shots were taken a couple of years ago (until today I hadn't really been anywhere to do any snapping); the beach is on the central coast of Peru, but I don't think there was a name to it, just a place we stopped driving along the coast.

The beach really has that unusual coloration, although the granules might appear a bit more refined as I was trying to sharpen the shot enough in the "lab" to bring more definition to the crabs...they have their camouflage down to a "T."

[Blue_In_AK]

4. They've got that natural camouflage thing down pat,

don't they? You did good to even spot them. How did you get them to hold still for the photo op?

[Adsos Letter]

8. Thanks Blue!

They have perfected their camouflage, it seems. Actually, there were a lot of them out there (not sure what specific type) and you could see 'em move, especially when the water washed over 'em.

As for the photo-op...they actually tend to stop and look up at ya' for a few seconds when you get close enough to them...and they weren't moving all that fast to begin with.

[alfredo]

12. Great photos. I got crabs at a hotel in Dakar but I didn't take pictures.

[Adsos Letter]

13. If they were the size of THESE crabs...

...you really SHOULD have taken pictures... :rofl:

[alfredo]

15. What they lacked in size they made up for with ferocity. BTW, the images

really show a beauty in sand that most don't see. Love the range of colors in the sand.