anyone who remembers my last encounter with a snail would, i suspect, have been surprised to see how i reacted to my most recent gastropod meeting. last night i came in from the vege garden with lovely armfuls of lettuce and chinese cabbage (t, this is what the mystery 'evil' plant is apparently)...and someone catching a ride on the cabbage. he happily kept munching and exploring away on the kitchen bench and didn't seem too perturbed by all the discussion, investigations and cameras in his little face. he seemed so full of personality with the waving and retracting of his antennae and his fearless wanderings in a strange place. and i was delighted to find that you can indeed hear them eating, as elizabeth tova bailey described in her book. was actually quite reluctant to let him go and entertained fantasies about my very own snail company, but couldn't bring myself to deprive him of his liberty.
(feeling a bit introspective and insular perhaps)
(and heading off on an adventure up the wall and to try and get inside the oven...not a good idea, didn't have the heart to tell him people actually eat his species) 
When I worked at London Roast back in the day, I used to find small snails and grubs inside iceberg lettuces when I was on salad-making duty. They'd often been in the coldroom for days, but when I gave them a leaf to sit on, they soon warmed up and came back to life. Remarkable creatures (though I still don't like them eating my seedlings).
ReplyDeleteWhat was his fate Kae?
ReplyDeleteyou need to read the book jacqui! aren't they fantastic animals?
ReplyDeletemel, he got bundled off with a bunch of the leaves he liked and taken off down the garden away from the vege and herb patches...unfortunately the mission was interrupted by waayyyy too many toads in the dark for my liking so i'm not going to be too surprised if he turns up back there again. stay posted!
hey there, i have been thinking of getting the elizabeth tova book, i followed your link but it does not go anywhere! great photos, though i'm not sure i could get that close...
ReplyDeletehi nasim...will have to try and figure that out (do you happen to know, if you edit a post, do you lose all the comments?) this should be the right link to it anyway:
ReplyDeletehttp://whenyouturnyourfacetothesun.blogspot.com/2010/11/while-on-subject-of-snails.html
couldn't recommend more highly! met two more snails yesterday in the vege garden as well...
hey, i don't think you lose comments but i know you can lose a link after editing and prob have to do redo it... sounds like a gem of a book!
ReplyDeleteit IS an absolute gem - adore it (in case you couldn't tell from that post!). will look forward to hearing what you think of it, somewhere or another...and thanks for the blog advice. tackle that one tomorrow i think.
ReplyDelete