The tadpoles are growing apace. Here are three photos, taken over a total of two weeks, to show you how much they have grown. If you hover over each photo you can see when it was taken. How long do you think it will be before the legs appear?? I am guessing within a week, fingers crossed.
I have put some of the tadpoles back in the pond, because I thought they needed more room to swim around. I have kept about 16 for now, and I may put a few more back as these get bigger and bigger, But they have a good safe place to live with me, and I am feeding them well, and there are no predators in my kitchen!
In with the tadpoles this morning was a tiny miniature water snail. Here it is next to the dime to show you how small it is:
In close-up it is very pretty. Look carefully at the next photo and look for two things: its eyes, and its mantle. “What’s a mantle”, you ask. Patience, and I’ll tell you!
First, the eyes. They are the two tiny black dots at the base of the tentacles. The mantle is the soft part of the snail, and in some snails, like this one, it has flaps that partly fold out over the outside of the shell.
It walks around using its entire body like one huge foot. Here is a picture of one taken from underneath, when it is walking around on the inside of a glass bowl.
Eyes on the Wild 
What a relief! I’m glad to know you don’t have predators in your kitchen! Interesting following the growth of the tadpoles. It’s definitely fun to see animals & plants growing, it helps put ‘stuff’ (=life) in perspective. Adorable little snail. I realize gardeners don’t like them or slugs (one is eating my pansies 😡) but they are interesting to watch.
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Pretty cool Moira!
“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Bob Dylan
Sent from my iPad
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