Country diary: The snails are back to reclaim my garden – and leave behind a little artwork | Josie George

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: So much to admire in these creatures, from their resilience over summer, to the detailed pattern of their trails Here’s a lovely word: aestivate. It’s what my garden snails did through the parched weeks of our summer drought, pulling their bodies high up into their shells and closing the door.

Here’s another: epiphragm – the pearl-like door they make to keep moisture in as they slow their hearts and their breathing, until just a thread of life remains. Pretty words, but such power in them. Over the summer I’d find these snails, dry and still, and hold them in my hands before tucking them back behind my garden pots. This is it, I’d think, the irony of our times:…