I hinted at this in last Friday’s tour of the Azores, we brought home a lot of beach glass.

Just as was the case in Morocco, I’m sure that most if not all of the beach glass had been trashed on the beach and over time, naturally turned and worn on the shore of the raging ocean. What differientiates this sub-collection from the treasures we find on our little Lake Ontario beach is that the Portuguese pieces were larger and were offered in many new colors. We couldn’t get enough of it. Meet our newbies.

Most of our collection came from a beach in the village of Mosteiros, Sao Miguel, the same village where we befriended a friendly pup and almost found ourselves the new homeowners of an oceanfront fixer-upper.

We’re still not sure what will become of this set. I’ll never allow it to intermingle with the Bud Light and Barefoot glass that is surely what washes ashore in Rochester, it deserves a better feature.

I even found a distressed marble nestled within the volcanic rocks.

The colors are astonishingly bright, and we found that many pieces were a blue-green hue. Also, we picked up some bright greens and a few small chunks that were more burnt orange/yellow color.

For scaling purposes, compare the found glass to my pink little hand.

I brought home a baggie of black sand too, because it was the first time I’ve ever actually seen and touched black sand.

For now, I’ve consolidated it into a beaker glass that I just bought (from Amazon, a set of 3 for $6.49).

One of the best things we found on the beach though, were tiles. Hand painted, beautiful tiles were often mixed amongst the bamboo driftwood and the basalt rocks, and we were lucky to grab a couple that hadn’t been too destroyed. This one is my favorite, a warm design and shape that I can imagine having displayed in my home (maybe propped on a windowsill, or used as a paperweight) forever.

I’m so glad to have heard recently from readers who have toured Sao Miguel, thank you for reaching out in various forms over the last week. Did you also bring back beach treasures from your vacations?