Happy New Year

Happy New Year and I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I have had lots of catching up to do this week but I think I'm pretty organised now, all orders placed over the festive season have been sent out. It was such a shame to have to stop posting orders so early before Christmas but the weather made it impossible to continue. Royal Mail only resumed their next day delivery guarantee after Christmas, the service was removed on December 1st. We had a good Christmas and New Year but we did need to be towed up our road on Christmas day! The car wheels were spinning on the thick ice and we were going nowhere until a neighbour came along with a 4x4 vehicle and offered to tow us out of the close. We made it to our son's house in time for lunch.

I spent a fair amount of time over the festive period caring for the bugs. Obviously without being able to send them out before Christmas I had a far larger number than I would usually have at this time. On Christmas day one of my Flat Rock scorpions gave birth, I was delighted, I have never had babies of this species before. Just yesterday I was sorting out my Imperial scorpions and noticed that one was covered in tiny, white babies. I have decided to keep my remaining adult and sub-adult Imperial scorpions. Now that their export has been banned they are likely to become rare in the pet trade so I really want to breed as many as possible. They are by far the best pet species and it would be such a shame if they were not around anymore. They are huge, docile and can be kept in groups. Most scorpions are small, active (aggressive) and need to be kept individually.

Everything in the bug house is looking good, the outside weather doesn't seem to affect the creatures at all. Lots of my spiderlings are moulting and getting bigger. I had planned to restock on a large scale at this time but now I just need to sell some of the animals that I have. The bug house is almost full to capacity so I although I will be buying in new animals I won't be buying in too much until next month at the earliest (my December sales were just over half of what I took in December the previous year). Roll on Spring, how many days is it? I must have a check in my new diary. I'm sure I'm cold blooded, I just hate the Winter and I never want to see snow again (I don't care how pretty it is). My thermal vests did arrive in the end, almost a month after I ordered them online!

I am a little paranoid at the moment about the number of burglaries in our village over the last few months. I was already worried (I'm sure I have mentioned it before in my blog) but after my poor nephew's family arrived home on Sunday to find that they had been burgled, I am freaked out. The thieves took everything electrical that they could find and jewellery. They have a man calling this evening to talk about fitting an alarm and I've asked them to send him to us afterwards! I do have an alarm on the bug house, it is set to ring my mobile and I have now stuck a big notice on the door pointing out that it is alarmed. I know that people laugh at me and say that any burglar would get a nasty shock but it's not funny to me. I also had to buy a new computer and after spending all that money on it I certainly don't want that disappearing. What a terrible waste of money, I could have bought a whole new wardrobe for what it cost and it only does what the other one did but hopefully this one will be more reliable (I say old, it was only about 3 years old). Unfortunately the computer is key to my business so I need it to work but it was a very boring buy for me. I am still getting used to it, so many things are different. It took my husband several days to install all the necessary programs and there are still a few things that don't work properly but I'm sure he will get it sorted in the end.

I think I got a bit side tracked there, back to the bug house alarm. Please don't text me late in the evening, I'm not keen on text messages at the best of times but obviously I need to take my phone up to bed with me for the alarm to work. I have the phone next to the bed and I have received several text messages from customers that have woken both myself and my family.

Lastly thanks for your nice cards and messages before Christmas. I loved receiving a photo of a gorgeous little boy holding his Hissing cockroach that he got from Father Christmas and I just wanted to say that they are all appreciated. I thought I would share this one with you:

Dear Virginia

Thanks for the immaculate packaging which meant all insects arrived alive and well.

Also for the delightful Christmas card.
I would not hesitate to use your company again

HAPPY CHRISTMAS