hibernating snails

i moved a little sculpture in the garden that my daughter made, to try & find some sign of snowdrops (nothing yet) and found this. actually the whole surface was covered & i'd pulled some off & put them in the compost recycling bin - am too cowardly to kill them myself so leave it to the council compost lorry! - when i thought it could be today's blip. they were so tightly cemented to each other that i presume they will have sirvived the harsh weather - sadly!