Snail, Interrupted

I see it slowly slinking its way across the barren terrain that is the no man’s land between the plant pots and log store which flank the back yard.

I see it and in a flash dash inside (momentarily forgetting that I am trying to outrun A SNAIL) to whip out the big gun before beast eludes me. I actually pause to take stock and adjust some settings like an actual photographer might before shoving the lens in the snail’s…..face (?) and snap a shot perfectly lit by the evening sun. Blip for the day: nailed. 
 
So how come the snail has been sidelined to extras?

Having been inspired to have a potter in the yard by sheilwill – which basically meant moving one of the log stores and swapping some pots around – and with dinner bubbling away on the stove, I seized the moment to sit and enjoy a nice tempranillo and let the sun gently burn my head (again). I was briefly interrupted by m’boy asking if he could have the small camera to take a few photos in the yard. 

It was a lovely, if slightly interesting, sight to see him clad in his Chelsea onesie and earnestly crouching down to get close to his subject. Then he showed me this beautifully framed and lit shot he’d taken of the bleeding hearts – his very first blummin’ photo of the day – and so I reacted in a proportionate fashion and sent him to his room without any dinner and told him that he could never use the camera ever again and he should stop being such a show off and making me look bad and how did he take that shot?

He took a few others too, which were genuinely really lovely and I’m delighted to see him showing even a passing interest in photography as it is such a nice thing to do. I love it because in the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, it does make you “stop and look around once in a while” and appreciate things that you might otherwise have missed.

I stand by my snail.