Yep, that moss covered Oak tree is a familiar site down here!
Aaah, Bowman's Beach; the Sanibel Island area ... lovely place! My husband and I love the west coast of Florida; we have a 23' boat that we used to trailer over to the Sarasota area every year for vacation. We had plans on going this summer for a few days but time got away from us with other travels (New York and then California!) and then my husband had to go back to teaching.
Next summer we plan on spending a week in the Longboat Key/Brandenton Beach area or possibly farther south (Fort Myers, Sanibel etc.) The only place in Florida to find pretty seashells like those is Sanibel Island! In Sarasota Bay we used to find a few shells and thousands of Sand Dollars! I had a habit of collecting many, many sand dollars until I began feeling guilty because they were not washed ashore but rather I took them from the seabed. I still feel really bad about that but I was young and didn't think. Now even at the beach here in Daytona when I find a shell I always check to see if there is a creature living inside and if there is the shell gets tossed back into the water.
I used to collect shells and fill jars with white sand and seashells for display and I made wind chimes once using some seashells too. I remember a time years ago when my sister filled a clear glass lamp base with seashells which was really pretty. When my husband and I downsized houses and moved almost two years ago I gave some shells to a neighbor but I think there's probably a container still in the shed at our rental house. Next time I'm over there I will have to look for it! We used to find the prettiest bright purple sea stars (starfish) washed up on the sand here but I never could figure out how to preserve them! I have a couple of purchased starfish and one glass vase with shells sitting atop our 150 gal marine aquarium for decoration.
Ok, back on topic - Air Plants! I have a few that were left over from previous wreath projects that I just stuck beneath a potted palm tree on the deck and another is stuck in a crotch of the Bottle Brush tree. These are just the common type found in the trees here in Florida:
