Tags
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this is definitely true. And isn’t it a good thing because otherwise us girls would all fancy the same guy and there would be a big problem. Beauty also comes in a world of different forms; nature, art, the physical body, dance, music, people, and of course inner beauty as well. But what about the humble slug? He is currently the bane of my husband’s life, regularly finding himself on the end of a trowel being catapulted into the woods. All he wanted was a nibble on the young tomato plants!
Yesterday I was called to the garden: ‘You should see the size of this one!’ Wow, says me, he’s a beauty! Let me get my camera! Grimace from hubby as trowel-relocating ejection systems were temporarily put on hold. Minutes later I was back with the camera in macro mode. Macro is just another world. There is so much going on and so much beauty in the minute detail of nature; so much that we never see, which fascinates me. Getting up-close to Mr Slug was a real treat. He’s a leopard slug, a really gorgeous gastropod. The macro shots clearly show his amazing ‘optic tentacles’ with eyes at their tips, his two shorter ‘sensory tentacles’, and his ‘respiratory pore’ (pneumostome) which he breathes through. Here he is, the beautiful Mr Slippery himself!
I’m going to post a few more photos on my photo blog if you’re interested: https://judesphotography.wordpress.com/ (click picture to enlarge)
The Writer in the Woods 
excellent photo Jude, I do love those big slugs as long as they are not under my bare foot …. which has happened more times that I would like to remember! It took days to get all the mucus off my skin ….
LikeLike
Yes! No fun trying to get that slime off. Science steals so many of nature’s ideas, maybe one day they’ll find a use for it!
LikeLike
Oh sure my real comment did not appear. I should just give up trying things but how would I learn then. Tell bob to pour salt on them and they fizzle up and disappear, Now hot do I know you are NOT going to tell him that?? Do yuo think the hole in the slugs side is a whatzit? These appear at my back doorstep on occasion but so far have not come under the door like the worms do. LOL JMD
LikeLike
Great pic – but OH how I hate them! I am worse than your hubby – I shove a twig through them THEN launch em into the empty lot next door.
Weird, though – I had a dream last night where I was dipping a live slug into honey, as if it was dinner. I confused myself so much I woke up.
LikeLike
Dreams are supposed to have a message in them. I dread to think what yours means! The mind boggles!
LikeLike
Maybe I was craving escargot?
LikeLike
Eeek! Slimy. Are they the same as snails? I always pick up a snail and examine its movements. I am fascinated with them. Not to mention, photogenic too. Macro lens, they are like instant binoculars eh. 😀 Ever since I got a camera, it made me “look” more. Zooming in to your subject the more you get closer, the more get the “feel” of it.
LikeLike
I read that slugs and snails are the same family – gastropods (meaning stomach foot!). Unlike a snail poor old slug has no mobile home though. Maybe way back in evolution he didn’t need it any more. I would definitely prefer to be a snail if I have to come back as a gastropod in my next life!
LikeLike
it’s so funny how nature’s creatures sometimes delight a few and are creepy to others! i often spot giant snails in my gardens, and they don’t seem to harm any of the plants.. but they’re always there as if they’re the appointed inspectors of the garden! at times they leave behind their beautiful and very fragile shells…
LikeLike
The big ones were called Roman snails in England, maybe ‘roaming’ would have been more appropriate! I collected over a dozen shells from a field last autumn in England. They now decorate a bit of the garden here in France.
LikeLike
that’s funny, yes, roaming snails in their shells!
it’s nice to have touches of other places to trigger memories in new locations! z
LikeLike