Slimy snails define determination. Efficient escargot!
I am surprised at myself for saying, these critters are another favourite! Not because I enjoy their company in the garden as I don't, quite honestly. They do quite a bit of damage to many of the plants I enjoy growing. But we are attempting to learn to live together and in the process I've learned to admire specific aspects of the common garden snail. They became a subject of observation sometime last year and that activity inspired me in many exciting ways. I was encouraged to find ways to make my images available to others (in their large format) for their own purposes. I was also inspired to promote and share my thoughts on what I am learning and experiencing through observations of the natural world I am both grateful and lucky to enjoy!
(common garden snail, macro shot)
(no backbone, no spine... poster shot)
This creature is fascinating in many ways. There is no backbone in a snail's body, yet she can carry a house on her back! He moves as slow as thick molasses and almost as messy and yet in days he can devastate a garden plant, be it flower or vegetable! Dedicated, determined, diligent - quite the incredible critter. As a very young garden pest they are almost identical to their parents, though tiny in scale and they are slightly transluscent.
(tiny garden snails on human hand, macro shot)
Their species seem to have evolved very little and they are hermaphrodites, fertilizing each other's eggs when they mate. I had the thought that calling a snail he or she is completely irrelevant or fully interchangeable, depending on how you look at it! They certainly won't have gender issues! And they give me pause too, when considering that even with their determination and their dual sexuality, they still need to join with another in order to create new life. There's something to ponder in that and its' implications make me curious!
"Conversations with a snail" posing with the caretaker.
This shot reminds me of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass"
