Almost Autumn, summer is nearly over

Almost Autumn, summer is nearly over. The plants will start to die down and I will once again be scrambling around under bushes for fresh bramble. I have been trying to cut back on stick insects for some time but they are not cooperating, the damn things keep breeding. I still have way too many and they are so jumbled up that I no longer know which species they are. If only I could sell them all, I'd be a millionaire. That is the thing with my business, sadly nobody pays me for simply looking after all the animals and when sales are low that is exactly what I am spending most of my time doing! July and August have been my worst months this year, even January had higher sales than these summer months. I think the Olympics has affected my business and I think too that the weather has been so poor that quite a few people have gone abroad on holiday. Things have picked up a little in the last couple of days, long may it continue.

All the bugs are thriving and new stock is arriving constantly now. I am off to collect some new spiders and scorpions later this morning, hopefully I will get them entered onto my website this afternoon or evening. I have been thinking of selling more equipment but it needs to be light so that my parcels stay below the Special Delivery postal limit. I have been gradually phasing out books, they are in most cases too heavy to post and with information now readily available on the internet who really needs books? I know lots of people like books but I prefer Google, my friend Google has the answer to just about everything. I search Google each and every day for something. I am thinking of stocking some little pieces of jewellery and key rings etc. I bought myself a lovely Mexican Red Knee tarantula key ring at the recent reptile show. With the help of Google I have tracked down the company who produce them, they are not British so I may need Google Translate to help me email them (this is sounding like an advert for Google).

While feeding all my spiders this week I was amazed to see that one of my Peruvian Dwarf Beauty tarantulas was an obvious adult male. He is tiny but has prominent mating hooks and long legs. I then checked my other spiders of the same species and discovered that another two had moulted into adult males. I really don't know how large the females grow (if you know please email me the answer!). I suspect that they are pretty tiny too but they are absolutely stunning spiders and their colours are beautiful.

Everything seems to be changing at the moment. I will almost certainly get my website upgraded soon. I have been making notes of all the things that drive me crazy about my current website. I will bombard my website guy with questions and see which is the best and most affordable package for me. My web guy is really great, I'm such a technophobe but he is always calm and explains things really well. I have never actually met him, we communicate by phone and email. If I'm going to spend all that money I want to make sure that I get everything right. It would be a disaster to have a website that I don't understand. It has taken me a long time to get to grips with this one and I certainly don't understand it all now. I had a call from Vodafone a couple of days ago and I am now eligible for a new upgraded phone. I have been looking forward to getting an iPhone but now the time has arrived I'm panicking that I won't be able to work it. I am very attached to my Nokia, I have always had Nokia phones. I told the sales girl that I am waiting for the iPhone five to come out - that gives me a bit more time to think about it! Another change has taken place at the lovely old sweet shop that supplies me with empty sweet jars. I really need the jars to post my 'bulk buy' cockroaches and also stick insects. I was surprised to hear that the shop had been sold to new owners some weeks ago. I spoke to the new lady and she assured me that she would save the jars but when I rang today she still hadn't got any for me. I don't like change, my hubby says I'm a control freak who needs to be in charge and I think he is probably right.

I have been in all this week and knuckling down to work, I caught up with most of my paperwork over the bank holiday weekend. Next week I will be away for a couple of days, I am out with the family on Wednesday before the kids go back to school on Thursday and then my daughter and I will be at the Olympic village on Friday, watching the Paralympic swimming. We will be staying overnight in Covent Garden thanks to my competition win with Cadburys. I hope we get some chocolate too. Last Friday we went to Cadbury world in Birmingham, it was a lovely day and we were given lots of chocolate!

I must get on, I am looking after a friend's cat so I need to go round and feed her, Teddi needs a walk too. I just cannot get away from animals, big and small.