Snails

With all the rain we've been having during August, we've been focusing on snails. Just look at some of the beautiful snails. We managed to find six different types of land snails.


The King! Roman snails.


Garden snail.




These are heath snails - their shells are flat and they have a distinct umbilicus.


Brown lipped snails. These can be found with various amounts of stripes.

White lipped snails.

No stripe.

Thick dark stripe.


Multi-striped.


Sinistral snails. Left handed.


Snail eggs.

Snails can be either left handed or right handed and you can tell which by positioning the shell upright with the entrance hole facing towards you.

Snails are considered to be hermaphrodites which means that a snail will have both male and female reproductive organs.

If the snail trail is continuous, then it’s a slug's trail. If there are breaks in the trail, it’s a snail.

Roman Snails!

We have been having quite a bit of rain recently and we have finally spotted roman snails.


This magnificent snail lives in the gardens surrounding the doctor's surgery! We have also spotted a few at the nature reserve. They are magnificent! So big and gorgeous sandy colours, with a distinctive pattern on the shell.

Roman snails were introduced to the British Isles by the Romans during the Roman period (AD 43-410). The Romans brought them here for food, in many parts of Europe (such as France and Italy) it is a gastronomic delicacy. Unfortunately this has lead to over collection and over exploitation of wild populations of this snail. In England, the Roman snail is a protected species, making it illegal to kill, injure, collect or sell them.

Over the weekend

It was a cold, wet weekend and we visited a nearby ancient woodland in the hope of spotting some Roman snails (These are big, big snails still found in England, introduced here by the Romans and still present).



My boys are loving snails right now. Well, we didn't find any roman snails to admire on this visit. Maybe next time. We spotted one fossil of a shellfish in a rockface. Again, will look again next visit for more finds. Huge stretches of magical carpets of bluebells there though. Such a joy!





We live in the Cotswolds and the countryside is truly beautiful here, especially during Spring. Lush green, rolling fields with mama sheep and babes grazing, cotswold stone walls, streams and natural springs and beautiful woodlands.



Just look at those plump, frisky lambs.