I'm very lucky! I live only 45 minutes from Meijer Gardens. A world class sculpture gardens. Home to the 24 foot tall DaVinci Horse of bronze. The twin is in Milan, Italy. I suggest you lo
ok up The Gardens on line. That way you'll realize why I LOVE to visit there.
One time when we were there, I saw this poster with the title, “How to be an artist”. Fit me to a tee, so home it came with us. It's graced our walls in many places. But it wasn't until last November the first suggestion jumped off the wall.
“Stay loose. Learn to watch snails”
So when Helix, my snail showed up at the same time we were designing my website, I felt as if Nature was gently blessing my art and writing. I had no idea the saga of learning to watch snails was going to continue.
A few weeks ago I brought home some healthy moss when I was out walking. I didn't know there were snail eggs ready to hatch. I shouldn't have been surprised though.
I have an iPhone and it is amazing the pictures I can take. I put it at 10x and have the microscope of sorts to look at and photograph these beautiful life forms.
Well, I realized that they'd probably leave the glass dome and return to the moss and I never see them again. Until they grew a whole lot more.
So I was surprised a couple days ago to find one on the dome again. Larger! I could see barely the shell form and the tentacles searching for food. So I was able to get a 17 sec video of her traveling.
Yesterday, she disappeared again. I went looking. Lifted up the dish that held the moss and found another tiny snail! Very tiny. I didn't know if it was dead. But just like Helix, I added water and low and behold, she's alive too. May the way, the other snail is back on the dome.
I have come to realize, they move around a lot!
I must say, this isn't an easy one to relate for you to read. So maybe your best way to appreciate what I'm trying to express, is get some moss of your own.
And just maybe a tiny snail will hatch. Then you too can learn to watch snails. Which will allow us all to stay loose.