A lovely few days away in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside
We had a lovely few days away in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside. The weather could not have been better, the sun shone every day. We went on a Hawk Walk (www.hawkwalk.org), where we learnt about various birds of prey and got to fly both hawks and owls. It was truly amazing, a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone, there were only four people in our group. In fact it got me thinking that I should set up a page of links to other websites. I would be happy to publicise small businesses and societies that I approve of and enjoy. I am a member of many animal charities and my website gets a huge number of hits per month (it's a shame all those people don't actually place an order!). We went to several nature reserves on our travels and saw lots of Slow worms and even a Grass snake, I was ecstatic, I'm sure you all know by now how much I love snakes and to see one in the wild is wonderful. I just need to see an Adder next but I understand that they are very rare these days.
It is great to win competitions and get to do lovely things and stay in beautiful places but it does play havoc with my business! When I returned last weekend I had plenty of emails but very few orders. It seems that whenever I mention that I am going away people stop placing orders. I always give notice of trips so that people can place their orders early and I can get them off before I go. Unfortunately it seems to have the opposite effect, almost everyone places their orders when I return, I am then so busy that I can barely cope with everything. This week has been crazy, my desk is piled high with paperwork and I am rushed off my feet trying to get all the animals fed and watered. I have therefore decided not to give advance warning of any future trips. I will simply put a note on my website when I am off. The site is fully automated so there is no need to wait until I return to place orders, I don't have anything to do with processing payments, that is all taken care of by PayPal and the stock counter will not allow anything to be ordered that is not physically in stock. We have several bank holidays approaching fast, they make life difficult for anyone running a postal business but Special Delivery has been pretty good lately, almost every parcel has arrived the following day. This makes planning which days are safe to post much easier, I certainly don't want any animals held in the post over a long bank holiday weekend.
I finally have the bug house burglar alarm linked up to the house alarm but it wasn't without its problems. On Mothering Sunday I went out to the bug house bright and early, unfortunately as it was my first time setting it, I hadn't done it correctly and tripped the alarm. What a nightmare, the street was woken up and worse was yet to come as I couldn't stop the alarm due to a faulty wire in the bell box. My hubby was at work so I had to ring the alarm guy who thankfully came over and stopped it. Amazingly our daughter slept through it! (that's teenagers for you).
The bugs seem to be thriving in this sunny weather. It's great to have new leaves on the bramble and privet, to feed the stick insects and grasshoppers and even the ferns are beginning to grow new leaves at last. Sadly my second Vietnam Earth Tiger tarantula has eaten her egg sac. I have no idea why, it's so strange, I checked on her yesterday and the egg sac had completely disappeared just like the previous one. I have finally sorted the last of my Barking Birdeater spiderlings and put them all into individual tubs. It took some time but it was a job that needed doing urgently or I was in danger of ending up with just a few fat ones! I have bought in some lovely new adult scorpions this week, they are wild caught so there is always the hope that they will produce young. Some of them do look gravid so fingers crossed. I was moaning at the price they cost me but when I saw them I could see why, the Giant Flat Rock are especially impressive. They are much larger than the other species that I generally have. Next week I am expecting a large number of baby spiders of various species, both tarantulas and true spiders. I did get a few Orb web spiders this week and have a couple of egg sacs. The trouble with breeding some of the true spiders is that the babies are often very small and therefore take a great deal of care in the early stages. I do like the Orb web spiders, they make such amazing webs. I really enjoyed having one in our conservatory when we lived in London. She made a web several feet across and just sat in the middle. I was quite happy sitting watching her but my hubby didn't enter the conservatory until she died. Unfortunately we no longer have a conservatory but I'm sure one would look great in our new white kitchen (the family wouldn't allow it). The kitchen is still ongoing but we are nearly there. I have been too busy to unpack boxes and put things away in the new kitchen but I intend to stay in all weekend and catch up on everything, work, kitchen, cleaning, dog training (Teddi and I are failing miserably). The once a week training class is such an ordeal, Teddi is so excited that she just doesn't listen to me, she makes all the other dogs look like they are on tranquilisers. Hubby says it's all my fault, he says I'm hyperactive and I've passed it on to the dog (he could take over or better still our daughter could, Teddi is supposed to be her puppy).
Better get on instead of 'talking' about it all. I must just say that I do appreciate it when so many people let me know that they are pleased with their order. It is always nice to hear and keeps me going when I'm stressed out (don't laugh, I know that's most of the time). Actually I have photos of our trip away and me relaxing in the sunshine! (I will try and get hubby to attach some photos to this blog along with the Hawk Walk and Slow worms - the grass snake was too quick!)