We Are The Collective......

......We are the snail.

Collectively they were trying to get above the waterline to safety. They were rammed into the crevices of the stems of the tree, huddled, snuggled and squashed, big and small all together.

I spotted them while trying to find a vantage point from the car as it was a dismal grey day. To take a picture of the floods wasn't easy with the high levels of water having risen over a few roads. Just off the main road out of the centre of Tewkesbury, down a small muddy bank leading into the flooded fields I spotted these snails. Chauffeur quickly pulled over.

I took a few shots but didn't have my tripod or wellies so came back for a second look. Anyone driving past must have wondered what on earth I was doing, tentatively kneeling in sopping grass, in the drizzle, leaning over into the water with my bum in the air!

These are Brown Garden snails, Helix aspersa and are edible! On good authority the 2nd best choice for gourmet use; collectively an escargatoire, though not coming onto any plate in our household I hasten to add.

They are Pulmonate Gastropods which means they have a coiled shell large enough for it to retract into and breathe air into a pallid lung instead of a gill. Loving moisture, (luckily for them) and laying 80 white spherical eggs at a time into the soil they can oviposit every 4/6 weeks and live 3 years!! No wonder they have a nuisance value in the garden with reproduction at that rate!

Thanks to everyone yesterday for the kind words - the anti inflams. appear to be doing their job and am feeling a bit more tickety boo! Million thanks too for being so positive about my bubble blowing fly; the stars and hearts meant a lot!