Snail on the patio tiles after brief morning rain. Flowering shrubs by the wall reflected in the tiles.
Snails should be the traveller’s symbol. Everything travels with them. House stylishly decorated. And move faster than snail’s pace might suggest. Have noted before that if you want to take a snail’s photo you may find that by the time you get a camera he has moved to a less photogenic spot.
Apparently speed typically about a millimetre a second, which isn’t exactly speedy, but still amounts to 60 millimetres - read six centimetres or 2.4 inches a minute. So two feet in ten minutes. Round the corner and disappearing from sight in an hour.
Should have thought that the patio tiles provide pretty slim pickings when there is plenty of lush vegetation around but presumably the snail knows best. There are often snails on the sidewalks after a rain. And then not all vegetation may be suitable. The oleander along our wall is pretty toxic - as in don’t eat, handle, compost, or burn (and inhale the smoke). If it grows out of control find somewhere else to live? But that’s humans. May be ok for snails.
So back to our lone snail out on the tiles. Looking for a mate? Obviously can’t share a house but has some advantages in the search. No need to worry unduly about gender as most snails are simultaneous hermaphrodites (must be a known condition despite my previous ignorance as predictive text knew what was coming). Means, apparently, that “when two snails meet they can readily engage in sexual reproduction, with one releasing the sperm gamete and the other releasing the egg gamete”. AI helpful here but not inclined to explain how the decision is made re who will play which role. Is there a dance or what? As usual, the more you find out the more there is to wonder about.
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