Tightrope slithering

Last night and this morning we finally got the rain we needed - in fact, at one stage it was so wet outside that I thought I might have to take an indoor shot today. Eventually though the downpour eased off to a mizzle, and I risked going out with the camera.

This snail was working its way along one of last year's vine shoots, which I'd left to form part of the framework for this year's growth. I really don't care for snails, but I've never blipped one before and I like the way its colours echo those of the old stone wall behind it. And at least it wasn't doing any damage, unlike one of its relatives which was munching one of my hydrangeas in broad daylight, and which was promptly doused with garlic spray.

Seeing this also reminded me that I'd read in notowennewitt's journal a couple of weeks ago that the old colloquial name for a snail is a wallfish, which I thought was quite interesting. But Collins online dictionary asserts that a wallfish is Helix pomatia, which is the edible Roman or Burgundy snail, and though the large juicy specimen in notowennewitt's blip might easily be one of those I'm pretty sure that this is Helix aspera, the common garden snail. I'm certainly not going to eat it anyway, with or without garlic.

The extra is an Iceland poppy bloom, weighed down by rain drops.