When you see these creeping around on your porch, it is not really a good weather sign. At least it has a house on its back, it is the ones without that I am not keen on. They are all eating machines, but you can keep an eye on them when they have a stripy appearance. It has been raining on and off since yesterday. The advantage is that my brown and parched lawn has a chance to recover. The disadvantage is that I am home bound and cannot go anywhere as I do not have a roof on my wheelchair and returning home with muddy wheels is not ideal in the apartment.
Everything is wet, wet, wet. Yesterday I spent the afternoon out on the porch with the computer and a some bananas with whipped cream as that was all I found to eat for an afternoon break. Suddenly, there was a wind: not just a wind, a mini hurricane and with help from Mr. Swiss I moved the computer inside. My cat Tabby ran and hid under the bed. She said there was too much banging noise from the thunder and that guy was appearing again collecting animals two by two for his boat that was moored down on the river. She said she always gets sea sick which is something worst than hairball production.
The positive side to the problem is that no-one will have to water the garden. We have two, one at the back and one at the front and so we split the job, but it an annoyance for both of us. At least there will be an excursion to the supermarket this morning. We have not prepared a week-end shopping list, but decided to buy what we see. No. 1 son leaves tomorrow on his annual holiday and will be living from spaghetti the next two weeks in Italy which leaves just Mr. Swiss and I alone at home. Now and again we might eat lunch out: nothing posh or exclusive, just a plat du jour in a local restaurant somewhere and at least I do not have to cook. Otherwise it will be fried and quick veg. I too like to have an annual holiday once a year, even if being a golden oldie means I am on an eternal holiday.
Such photos are just a dream at the moment and I only took this one two days ago on a wheelchair tour from the local castle. I have to curl up with a book and make the most of it. I am reading “Outsider by Stephen King at the moment. I find if you do not know what book to read, Stephen King never disappoints. It seems to be his latest book, about a man that is in two places at once. A sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, however by the time I upload my photos and blog around I only have about half an hour to spare to read. Yes being a golden oldie is one big stress.
Talking of stress, I must go, there are places to hoover and a visit to the shower. And afterwards I have to present myself to the public at the supermarket. I hope the sun shines on you today, I am not sure if it will on me, but this little snail will be glad for every damp place he finds.
Lovely, just so lovely – I must say I like the mini snails with their pretty little houses. I transfer them regularly to the ‘wilderness’ but have no pain to murder the slugs!
Very pretty sky. Hope you had a good trip to the supermarket!
I used to have a ton of those in New York. They don’t seem to like it around here, but given all the OTHER things we deal with, from the mice to the ants to wasps, I figure we’ve got enough on our plate! You can keep those nasty ones and I’ll try really hard to fix our other stuff!
In the hot dry weather we can forget them, but at the first drops of rain the army appears.
That snail is pretty. I mean, if you must have snails in your garden, they may as well be stylish. Where I work, I sometimes find the rare native snails. They still live in the mountains. The brown snail that was brought for escargot from France displaced the natives in the Santa Clara Valley. They are big and juicy, and for us, are more destructive than slugs. One of these day in autumn, I must get a picture of the famous banana slug. It is huge and bright yellow, but harmless to viable plant material. It consumes decaying forest debris in the redwood forests. It is such a a respected mollusc that it is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz.
We never see a snail until it rains, and then they become an invading army. The worst are the slugs. They have the same name in German whether they have a house on their back or not, but there are certain plants you must avoid in the garden. At night I could swear you can hear them munching. They ate a complete parsley plant within an hour that I had in the garden. I spread pellets at the first attack to protect what I can. Afterwards it is just done manually, picking them up and throwing Themas far as possible. I have had a Weinberg snail in my garden now and again. They are the big French sort that you can eat, but I just take a photo.
My colleague collected a bunch of snails into a lidded bucked, but his daughter found the bucket and felt badly for the snails trapped inside, so took the lid off. I could not help but laugh when he told me about it. It did quite a bit of damage.