Certain we had caused the demise of the little one but still, holding out hope, we set her out to dry on a leaf of one of our orchids and went about our day. At dinner, she was still there, not having budged at all. Neither of us could bring ourselves to dispose of her so we went to bed and, the next day, had pretty much forgotten about her in the rush of emails, shipping and making.
That night, as we sat down for dinner, Sofie noticed that she was gone! She thought, perhaps, that I had discreetly removed her but when I said that I had forgotten about her altogether, we started a frantic search. Had the cat found a tiny new plaything? Had she dried up and fallen to the floor? Did we imagine her or was she just a dream?
Turns out, none of the above. . . she had come back to life from her "death-by-dressing" and found her way onto the plastic plant tag in the orchid pot. She had crawled about a foot from leaf to tag! We got out a quart mason jar, put in a layer of organic soil, a rock, a piece of garden lettuce, carrot tops and parsley and half an eggshell and gave it all a good soaking. . . she took to it right away and explored to her heart's content without a sign of fear. . . which is why, after deciding she should stay, we named her Alexandra the Great!
And now, two weeks later, she is thriving and has become our new permanent house guest! She's grown so fast and we delight in giving her fresh greens and eggshells each night as well as soaking her world a few times a day. We've been reading up on snails and it seems they can live 12-15 years. . . OK, I wasn't expecting that long of a stay from our houseguest!!
She's a marvel, having grown about 4x her orignal size in these two weeks. Most of the sunny days she hides under the half-eaten lettuce leaf or curls up beside her favorite rock but yesterday she was out and exploring during the day and I took the opportunity to get a few macro shots of her (she is still really VERY small!) to share.
Another of nature's unending small miracles. . . Alexandra the Great. . . we can't wait to see how big she gets and have already been shopping for a larger home/empire for her future, larger-snail, self. : )
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| Alexandra the Great conquers yet another obstacle! |
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| LOVE the shell spiral and colors. And her amazing antennae! |
Thanks for dropping by!
xo
nicolas
I am amazed she made it! She is very cute! Will she model for any clay creations? I think it would fun to see snails in bewilder and pine. Since you thought i needed a new idea :-) so now i have returned the favor to you.... But really, thanks so much for stopping by my blog lately, and for the idea of the book i will now have to add to my list of things to do.... Imaginary creatures next along with the monsters, the flower fairies and the alphabet birds that would go with the falling children or children walking on clouds or flying with umbrellas.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed too! And I LOVE your idea. . . since I have been spending a lot of time watching her, I HAVE been thinking about snails. . . or at least little snail-type folk who carry their houses on their backs with little windows and flower boxes of course. : ) Thanks SO much for dropping by!!
DeleteThat's so cute!!! And you are wonderful for rescuing a tiny snail, most people wouldn't even notice. Can't wait to see more pictures of her!! :)
ReplyDeleteLaura xo
Hi Laura! Welcome to my blog and thank you for commenting! Awhile back I wrote about trying to be more aware of what my inner nine year old would like. Remembering to realllllly pay attention to, and prioritize making time for, the small things and all the beauty around me is one of the results. As a child I would spend hours watching a snail, or a firefly, or butterfly (if they'd stay around long enough!) so Alexandra offers that same daily "meditation" and never disappoints! :)
DeleteAwwww, this is so adorable!! Only you would save a snail Nicolas and make her a home! Now I want a snail! I can't wait to see more of Alexandra the Great!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I'll post about her again as time goes on. She is growing SO fast! I am in awe of her appetite and her ability to get from one place to another. She's really a small miracle to watch every day (well, every evening, as she sleeps most of the days) :) Thank you for dropping by Stacy!
DeleteOh it's so sweet that you and Sofie saved Alexandra the Great. I'm amazed that she survived, it is wonderful that you have an adorable new house guest.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa! Welcome to my blog! We plan on having her around for the long haul and we figure it's the least we can do given that we almost drowned her in dressing! :) Thank you for dropping by. . .
DeleteShe's a gorgeous, sassy little thing! I think I might have to post for a snail roomie too. I bet they have a lot less poop to clean up than all of the other critters who live here ;)
ReplyDeleteHmm yes, farrrr less to clean up after Nichola. :) And sassy is right! She is constantly pushing the boundaries of her "empire" and showing off with all of her gravity defying stunts and the such. . . Thank you so much for coming by today!
DeleteI have a great fun reading your blogs.Thank you for making this beautiful and awesome blogs. Hope to read more post from you in the future. Please dont forget to visit me in my site @ www.imarksweb.org. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOf course, when you mentioned Alexandra the Great in your recent post, I just had to search out more about her origins. I'm so happy that you and Sofie rescued her and made her a home. I usually relocate little critters I find indoors, including spiders, to the outside of the house near the window closest to where I found them. I actually haven't seen a snail in many years and I feel quite sad about that. As a child, I would be fascinated with snails which took up residence in my parents' garden. I could watch them for hours. Is that weird? It's sad that people went all crazy with pesticides and the like. Now, the insect populations are dying off and even bees have recently been placed on the endangered list because of pesticides and human intervention. Very troubling.
ReplyDeleteI will go back to the recent post now but just want to say that I loved reading about Alexandra the Great. She must have a very strong will to live to survive a swim in salad dressing. Good for her!