Mountain View – Snails and Rapeseed

Left: Snail Crossing Vista Slope Trail; Center: Deborah Butterfield Horse with Rapeseed; Right: Milk Snail Shell

When in Mountain View, I look forward to my early-morning ride on a bright yellow G-Bike. My normal route takes me heading east along Amphitheatre Pkwy, skirting the south edge of Vista Slope. Before 8:00 am, the tech world is asleep, but not the numerous Otala lactea (milk snail) crossing the trail. They seem to be hurrying to take cover for the day, after a night of slimy adventures. I try to swerve out the way, but every now and then there is “crunch” signaling that another snail just passed on to the big gastropod in the sky.

Toward the end of the route, I pass by the Deborah Butterfield horse on Crittenden Lane. During a week in mid-April when I'm there, there are drifts of yellow Brassica napus (rapeseed, rape), echoing the color of the bike I ride. The Rape of Crittenden [ref]?

Left: Rapeseed Flowers and Leaf; Center: Deborah Butterfield Horse with Rapeseed; Right: Snail Hanging on to Rapeseed Flower Stalk


Left: The Famous Google GBikes in Front of Building 1900/2000; Right: Close-up of Blue GBike Chain

Shapes: Deborah Butterfield Cast Bronze Horse (left); Black-Tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus californicus) and the Twin Peaks of the Shoreline Ampitheatre (center); Twin Milk Snail Shells (right)

Milk Snail Research: The Snail I Barely Missed and the “Killing Machine” (GBike) (left and center) and the Vista Slope Snail Dodge in the Early Morning (right)

Panorama View from Knoll on Crittenden Lane. Far left is approximately due north.

Panorama View from Vista Slope. Far left is approximately due east.