Weather and snails

I have no wish to join in the global warming discussion but the weather here over the last few days has been quirky to say the last. Only a few miles away yesterday small similar villages were hit by appalling flooding. We had rain but no flooding. Today the sky goes black, the rain hammers down and then suddenly the suns out again and it is actually quite warm.
It's no wonder that everything here is still growing, the grass needs to be cut. There are flowers on things normally dormant by this time and the only good thing is that the snails have gone to bed for the winter so everything can grow in profusion and it does!
This morning in the middle of a particularly black spell I went out to find our gardener to tell him to go home. He pointed out to me that an ancient elder was in danger of coming down, a large crack had appeared half way down it. He wanted to cut down the whole tree but i insisted that at least half of it should remain...I love the scent of elderflower in the Spring and the red black berries later are always a joy so off he went in the rain which was then extremely violent, to do the honourable thing and put it out of its misery.
Job done he went home to avoid actually drowning!
This afternoon i went to look at what he'd done. Like all countrymen everywhere he had built the chopped branches into the hedge and what did I find? I now know where the snails go to in the winter. Tucked inside the hollowed trunk were hundreds of snails of all sizes..huge to minute!
I left them be I am a softie but it didn't feel quite kosher to winkle them out to kill them. Maybe the weather will do it for me.