A long week
It seems to have been a long week. Everything in the bug house continues to thrive. I bought some lovely adult Indian scorpions this week but I haven't had time to sort them out yet so you won't find them on the website. I have so many animals coming and going that it is difficult to keep up. I have now placed my order for a number of African spiders, scorpions and various bugs, they should arrive fairly soon, within March I'm told.
The weather continues to be more Winter than Spring. I was delighted to see masses of frogspawn in one of our pond yesterday. I wasn't so delighted to be collecting bramble in the pouring rain. I have found a new bramble spot! I was helping to look for a lost dog a couple of weeks ago and came upon a secluded, little old grave yard. It is covered in lush bramble. At this time of year it is great to find a good supply, I have been visiting the local Homebase car park for months and there really isn't much bramble left. I have cut down on my stick insects hugely but I have no intention of giving them up, just being more selective about which species I keep. The Black Beauty stick insects are very pretty and feed on Privet. I have plenty of Privet growing in my garden (I have planted several bushes over the last two or three years). I have adults that I purchased from a bug show in January but I noticed yesterday that my own eggs are now hatching as several nymphs have appeared. I also have some 'very hungry caterpillars' feeding on Privet. They are Tree of Heaven silk moth larvae that I got for my great-nieces. They are growing rapidly, when we checked them yesterday we realised they will soon need a larger cage (another job for the weekend). I think it is lovely for kids to watch creatures go through their life cycle. I used to enjoy showing school classes the various stages when I did my 'mini-beast' visits (many years ago now). The girls and I will also watch some tadpoles grow into frogs, it still fascinates me.
When I say it has been a long week, it is more personal issues than work related. Today is my nephew's 40th birthday so we have celebrations planned for later and tomorrow. My niece gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Monday and sadly my lovely next door neighbour was rushed into hospital by ambulance and had a major operation this week. You may recall if you read my blog regularly that she lost her husband last year. I am very close to Joyce, she is the one who takes in many parcels for me and makes me cups of tea when I am frantically running around (most days). If I were religious I would pray for her but I'm not so I will cross my fingers and hope for the very best.
My hubby has been working away on the new bug room for the last couple of days. I cannot believe how long it is taking! (patience is a virtue that I have never had). It is getting there, the painting is almost finished but we keep finding more holes where bugs may get out and being attached to the house I cannot have them getting out. It really is not the same as escaping at the bottom of the garden. I'm thinking cockroaches and crickets here, I don't intend to lose any tarantulas and scorpions but there again they do sometimes get out of their cages! The room must be sealed and there are just so many pipes, nooks and crannies. The vinyl flooring was being laid this morning but it is now being laid next Tuesday. Once the flooring is down my hubby can add the skirting boards and door surrounds. We discovered this week that the bottom of the external door has rotted so that needs replacing. It goes on and on ...........
I have been clearing out my office in preparation for moving all the bug things in and came across my old 'visitors book'. The last entries were in 2004, it will be great to once again have a bug room where I can invite people in. I quite often have people call at the door to collect orders and I feel really awkward just handing things over. They sometimes come into the hall and kitchen but the family are generally in the living room so it is difficult. This week our son's cats have taken over the living room. They have come to stay as our son and daughter in-law's house renovations are underway. Obviously I cannot let the cats out and they are desperate to get out! Teddi is loving all the chaos and enjoying eating the cats food. It was especially chaotic yesterday as I have my nephew's three kids on a Thursday. I ended up shutting the cats in their carriers for a couple of hours.
Great news, I actually sold a pair of bug earrings this week. Not so great news I am quickly running out of heat packs for my parcels. I cannot simply buy some more as I have to buy in bulk and I won't need them again until next winter. If I buy them now I will have to store them and I have no space, I don't need the expense right now and I'm not even sure if my supplier will have them as they are imported from China in the Autumn. I am horrified by how much the postage is going up next month. I was sent the new Special Delivery rates this week and it is a big increase. I don't know what to do about my postal charges? They should increase from £8.00 to £9.99 but I don't want to risk losing customers when things are still tough financially. I may well need to charge for heat packs next winter, in fact I think it is pretty certain. I have ordered some Special Delivery stamps at the pre-increase prices but they won't last long. Sadly I don't have the money to invest in larger numbers of these stamps (they are like the 1st and 2nd class stamps without a price printed on them).
I like it now that I have discovered I can put a photo on the blog each week. I intend to take a photo of Stephanie in her nice new home and put it on this week's blog. I can't do it now as my daughter is still in bed. Stephanie is my daughter's almost 18 year old Mexican Red Knee and lives in her room. She is looking like an old lady but still manages to get around and catch crickets. I think she likes her new tank but it is difficult to tell!
Must get a move on I have to take my mother in-law to the doctors this morning. I would love to think that I may get a rest on Mother's day but it is more likely that I will spend the day feeding my spider collection, a job that I just haven't managed to fit into this week yet.