Not A Good Week
Where to start? I seriously considered not writing my blog this week as I'm not a happy bunny. The bugs are fine, I got some nice new mantids in and sales have picked up quite a bit since last week. However on Saturday I had my purse stolen on the London underground. I was on my way to a meeting and lost all my cash and cards and then on Wednesday my cat died. I hadn't had him long, he arrived over Halloween (a jet black cat) in a very poor state, many trips to the vets later he had put on almost a kilo in weight and I was hopeful that he would survive. I called him Shadow as he was the skinniest cat I have ever seen. He just came in our cat flap and joined the menagerie. He was a lovely, friendly cat but on Wednesday morning he fell unconscious and didn't wake up.
Anyway back to the bugs. Have you been watching I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here? Most of the trials this year seem to involve being covered in bugs. They obviously have a good supplier of crickets, mealworms and cockroaches out there. They mentioned stink bugs the other day but I didn't see any. I have been interested in the spiders as they look very like my Wandering spiders, I noticed that one of them was running up and down David Van Day clutching an egg sac. I don't think I am destined to breed my Wandering spiders, twice I have introduced the adult males to what I thought were adult females. The females have then moulted so they obviously weren't adults after all and I discovered yesterday that my last male has been eaten! I'm hoping perhaps they mated first but I'm not all that optimistic.
I do seem to have a nice range of mantids now, they are fascinating creatures. I love they way they turn around to look at you. I have been breeding lots of flies to feed all the mantids and I seem to have had a mass break out of Green Bottles. I can't work out how they have got out of the cage but there must be a hole somewhere. I keep finding flies in my tea. I know it's disgusting but if it's only one or two I just scoop them out. It doesn't seem to have done me any harm and it's nothing compared to the Bush Tucker trials. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a box covered with bugs or locked in a cave surrounded by rats, snakes and crocodiles (sounds fun) but you wouldn't get me eating live creepy crawlies!
The office saga still continues, we are planning to start the painting this weekend. I will be ordering the new windows today and I hope to get a chance to look at flooring later this afternoon. My brother in-law is back from his holiday so the plan is to burn on the roof next Monday (if it doesn't pour with rain again). I must be back in my office before Christmas as we have family coming to stay and the bedrooms are full of my office contents! I have decided to go with Thursday 18 th December as my last posting day. I think it is just too risky to post on the Monday before Christmas. People can always call and collect if they are near enough. I get quite a few visitors now, I'm always surprised how far people are prepared to travel. My 'notes to callers' that I wrote a few weeks ago don't seem to have put people off. I'm still not sure about the wording but I just had to write down a few rules. The idea that I had a few weeks ago is looking like becoming reality. I am hoping to move the bugs into the workshop off of my office and let my husband have the bug house as his work shop. Although the room is smaller I think it can work and it would be so much easier when people call as it has it's own front door and it's attached to the house rather than at the end of the garden - watch this space!