Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #206 : Treasures

I am  honored to have been invited to be a guest host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #206  by the Lens-Artist team.

This week’s topic is Treasures, with can be wealth or riches like precious metals, money, jewels, or anything that a  person greatly values.

This week, we invite you to share what you treasure.

I love the ocean and the beaches! When walking on the beach sand, there are so many hidden treasures too! Being there calms me down, gives prospective to my life and makes me happy! (And I can take a lot of photos too!)

Trust that the treasure we look for

is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

Henri Nouwens 

---

Beautiful patterns made by the waves on the sand – Paternoster beach
Photo taken by Elmarie van der Berg

A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.

Henry Grunwald

Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or approximately 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass.

In non-tropical coastal settings it is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz

Calcium carbonate is the second most common type of sand, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past 500 million years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish.

In South Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean as its western border, the Cape West Coast has many pristine, sandy white beaches with excellent conditions for a variety of activities; from water sports and fishing to hiking and relaxing in the sun. The best part is that you don’t have to go very far to find all of this.

On a recent visit to Paternoster Beach, not far from were we live, I took a big scoop of the sand to have a closer look to see what I could find…

An enlarged look of the beach sand from Paternoster

A closer look at the sand

Macro of the sand

Look at all the beautiful stones – so mary different colours and shapes!

“Nothing soothes the soul like a walk on the beach.” -Unknown

More of the treasures that one can find – a variety of colourful shells

Colourful shells

“May the shells on the beach remind you that treasures arrive every day in the form of simple things.” ― Obasanjo Samuel

Different shapes

“Collecting seashells will bring enormous joy, and placing them in our home will make us continue to be joyful.” Dpsayings.com

More shapes

Some Broken Blue mussel shells on the sand

Flowers growing on the sand dune

Flowers growing on the dunes

Succulents growing on the sand dunes

We hope you join us this week and share your Treasures with us. Be sure to include the Lens-Artists tag in your post and a link to this post.

A special thanks to Tina for her fun and eye-opening challenge last week, The Eyes Have It.

As you may know, the Lens-Artists are continuing their summer tradition of inviting several talented guest hosts to present our July challenges.

Next week, Jez Braithwaite of Photos by Jez is hosting Seeing Double so be sure to visit his site on Saturday, July 9 at noon.

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the month:

July 16, Andre of My Blog–Solaner is thinking about Summer Vibes.

July 23, Tracy, who posts at Reflections of an Untidy Mind, has chosen Surrealism.

July 30, Sarah Wilkie, who hosts Travel with Me, asks you to share Three Favourite Images.

We invite you to check out their diverse and intriguing blogs and hope you’ll join us throughout July. The Lens-Artists team will be back in August.

—

I’m also linking this post to Terri’s Sunday stills post: Beautiful Beaches