The plant order for our Greenbelt restoration site arrived today. As I was sorting them out, a shiny object caught my eye. When I looked closer, I discovered that it was the shell of a snail.
The snail was moving along the top of a pot. By the time I grabbed my iPhone camera, it looked to me like it was planning to go down the side of the pot.
I was wrong. That was not what the snail had in mind.
I loved watching the snail’s amazing journey. However, I didn’t want it eating the new Greenbelt plants, so I carried it to a place where it could munch on something else.
I just spent an hour working in the Greenbelt. Soon after I came back in the house I heard something drop onto the vinyl floor next to me. I looked down and this is what I saw.
The snail must have attached itself to my blue jeans. I snapped a photo of it, appreciated its beauty and took it back outside!
When I returned home the other day, I noticed a glob of black on my house, just above the dying dahlias. It was about 8 feet from the ground. I couldn’t imagine what it was.
As I walked closer, it became obvious.
I’ve never seen a snail 8 feet up the side of a house before!
Last week, when I removed an overgrown chive plant from my garden, I discovered it had been covering two snails. One appeared to be missing a big part of its shell and mucous was pouring out of that area. It looked like the other snail was eating the mucous. When I separated them, the wounded one didn’t move but the other one did. I followed its movement taking photographs along the way.
Notice in the photos below that the snail is approaching a crevice in the piece of concrete.
Wow!
Turning to the right.
And then pulling his shell up.
He has almost made it to the top.
Success!
As I continued to watch, I decided to follow him by video.
You are about to enter a snail’s world. [The snail you see at the very end of the first video is the wounded snail. The snail from the photographs above is the star of the first video (47 seconds) and all of the second one (2.59 minutes).]
I thought he was headed in a particular direction but I was wrong!
After about 20 minutes, the wounded snail began to show signs of life. In time it started on its own journey. So was it really wounded? If not, had they been mating?
I looked for information and videos on snail mating but nothing that was described or shown looked like what I had seen. There is so much I don’t know. I appreciate the glimpse into the wonders of nature that this experience has given me.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”-William Shakespeare
Living, Learning and Letting Go 