Nearly spring?
Nearly spring? Well we are now into February so it is only next month! Not that this week has felt much like spring is on its way. Tuesday was my birthday and I certainly hadn't asked for snow but that's what we got here. The journey to the post office was treacherous, I had to risk life and limb to get my parcels down that hill (1 in 10) to send them off (the postman didn't make it up the hill so I had to wait a day for my birthday cards). Thankfully the snow soon disappeared but there were several accidents around our village.
The bugs are happy in their nice warm room and I am slowly getting there with all the new stock that I got from the show a couple of weeks ago. I finally added the Katydids to the website yesterday but I still haven't got the scorpions sorted out. I have had another email this morning from Facebook telling me I have 21 friend requests, it isn't even up and running yet so how does that work?? Perhaps when I go to Luxembourg in the half term week I will actually have time to sort it out and learn what I need to do. There again I am going over to help my niece with her four kids!
Gloria (named by Jo after I asked for suggestions in the blog recently), the amazing, huge Orange Baboon tarantula that I mated is almost certainly hiding an egg sac in her flower pot home, she has completely sealed it up with thick webbing. Sadly the brave little male who survived their encounter was not so lucky with his second mate. I had hoped last week that he was hiding in her cage somewhere but on checking this week I found his crumbled body discarded in a corner. I'm still not sure if my huge Sri Lankan Ornamental is about to lay an egg sac, she was living quite happily with the male for a week or so and is eating everything in sight but there is no sign of an egg sac yet. My clearly pregnant scorpions are still waiting for that right moment to give birth. I wish I knew what trigger they needed but a car journey does seem to do the trick sometimes so I will load them up in the boot again soon and take them around on my travels with me. I think I will need to wait until the weather improves a bit first.
I intend this to be my year of action, I need to cut back on the amount of stock that I hold or I suppose I mean the animals that I hold for so long that they just turn into pets! Trends come and go and very sadly stick insects are just not in vogue anymore. I love them but I only have to look at my cage of Malaysian Green Jewel stick insects to realise that if they don't sell, then what is the point of me spending so many hours looking after them? They are mind blowingly beautiful, their colours are so bright and vivid that I honestly think they are one of the most exquisite bugs I have ever seen and yet I cannot sell them. I also have an assortment of sickly spiders in my 'hospital' area which is a ridiculous waste of time and space. I just can't bear to 'dispense' them, the adult male tarantulas too! Unless someone happens to have a corresponding female they live with me until they die of old age. Oh well, I suppose I'm just moaning again, I should bump them off but I'm sure I won't. I did however call it a day on my huge box of Beetle cockroaches recently. They are a cute species and resemble the Domino and Question Mark cockroaches. The only thing they lack are the white markings but whereas the other two species are sought after nobody wanted them. I 'recycled' them to the birds in the garden. I felt awful but I hadn't sold a single tub in months.
Talking of birds, there are Blue Tits surveying my nesting box with a camera in it (that sits directly in front of my office window and is linked to my computer). We now have Green Parakeets flying overhead, I haven't yet managed to entice them to the bird table but I'm working on it. I know they make a terrible noise but they are beautiful and I like to think they have followed us up from London (in reality I think they are making their way up the country until they conquer the whole of the UK). Our garden may resemble a jungle but it is full of wildlife. I read in a local paper this week that a scarce moth lives in this area and feeds on the Mullein plant. I have seen the brightly coloured caterpillars on the very ugly plant in our front garden so I suppose I am stuck with it now, no more pulling out Mullein plants (but I may dig it up and move it to the end of the back garden).
Next week will be super busy getting everything ready to look after itself for the following week when I'm away. The family will be here and I will leave notes of what needs spraying and turning on and off but the arachnids are out of bounds. I don't want to come back and find tarantulas on the curtains and ceilings. Actually if any got out I think they would tape up the doors and seal off the bug room until I got back. I often return to glasses upturned on the floor with a cricket or cockroach underneath.
Orders have been plentiful this week despite the weather so hopefully next week will see lots of orders too. My mother in-law will be having tests at hospital mid week and then staying over at our house as she cannot spend the night alone after the procedure and hubby is yet again away in Manchester but it is at long last his final week of training for his new job. Hooray!