Some ideas are good and some not so good

Some ideas are good and some not so good J I think the spider evening falls into the category of ‘not so good’ as nobody came L That said I had plenty of feedback, there is no doubt that most of my customers are just too far away to make the journey. The number of customers who have been visiting me recently have not necessarily been local but they are calling at a time/day that suits them, sometimes on their way to or from work or more often on a day off. Friday certainly wasn’t the right evening to choose. I am not that far out of London and the traffic around here is pretty dire in the evenings but especially bad on Fridays. It is dark so early now and this didn’t help either. I have a list of people who have visited me this year and I should have sent invitations but just never found the time. 

I am still going ahead with my open afternoon next Saturday. I know I have at least one person coming J I have put the information on Facebook and the ‘pink info box’ on my website. I am asking anyone coming along to let me know in advance this time. I can’t cope without plans, as you are all aware by now I am a complete control freak! I have set up an event on Facebook but I have no idea if I have done it right, my daughter is too busy at the moment to help so we will just see what happens. As I’m always saying, it was so much easier when I lived in Hounslow, the transport links were great, whereas here they are non-existent (well they are to me, this is the first place I have ever lived that doesn’t have an underground station within walking distance).

I have had several requests to hold onto orders until closer to Christmas but I’m sorry there is no way I can do this as I have no idea when the weather will get colder. I’m really pleased that up until now we have barely seen any frost here and long may it last! It was probably about three or four years ago when we had a lot of snow in early December and I just decided to abandon posting out orders until the new year. With Royal Mail getting busier as Christmas approaches I often worry that my parcels may take an extra day to arrive but the service is incredibly good these days (expensive but generally very reliable).

I still haven’t had time to do much for Christmas yet, it is not my favourite time of the year ‘bah humbug’ but I need to start making an effort soon, or it will have come and gone! It doesn’t look like I will have much hosting to do as friends and family seem to be far more organised than me, we have invitations for just about every day over the festive break. I keep telling everyone that the animals take hours to look after but nobody believes me  I can’t be out every day or I will be up all night feeding and cleaning my ‘mini-zoo’. I’m sure everything will get done, it always does. I am out most of this weekend but I really must make time to write Christmas cards, they are flooding in now. Oh, I do sound terrible but honestly, I just find the whole thing such hard work, it’s cold, wet, I don’t know what anyone really wants as a present and my house is bursting with ‘stuff’. We spent last Sunday trying to clear out the loft and chuck things out. I find it so painful, I’m a hoarder at heart and I just know that whatever I throw out might be useful one day!!

Anyway, I visited my first care home yesterday with Ginny’s Jungle and it went really well. It was certainly a different experience as I am far more used to children’s groups. The main difference was that children leap around all over the place and I generally end up sitting on the floor with kids and animals all over me. On this occasion my audience were sitting in chairs and this meant taking each animal around the room to show everyone. I only got to show about half of the animals that I took and soon realised that I needed more non-living items to pass around (snake skins, spider skins, photos, novelty items). It was also a large group compared to my parties of up to twelve children. When I visit brownies, cubs etc. there are generally plenty of helpers and we can divide everyone into groups. But it was a great experience, the entertainments lady from the home has been extremely helpful to me and I hope to visit many more care homes in the future. It is a project close to my heart as my dear mum was in a home at one stage.

My bugs seem to be doing very well in the “snug as a bug room” as I call it, there are lots of pairings going on in preparation for the spring. I have another male and female Spearmint Asian praying mantis and I will be far more careful this time. I won’t leave them alone! The rat-bag female who ate my other male is so fat that her wings don’t even meet in the middle so I expect she will lay an egg sac soon. They really are an incredibly beautiful colour. I took my adult Dead Leaf mantis to the home yesterday and I think she was possibly the favorite bug that I showed. I do love praying mantids, they make great pets but they are far too time consuming to stock as part of my postal business. Someone kindly gave me a giant centipede last week, she is stunning but I think they have to be the scariest bug for me. I stopped posting them several years ago as I was freaked out at the thought they could escape in the post. Their jaws are very strong and they are so active. I have seen them bite their way out of a plastic box but I’m really happy to have this one as I’m hoping to get into some phobia work next year and she will be just perfect!

Barney was amazing yesterday, I just can’t believe that I ever said a Bearded Dragon would be boring (wash my mouth out with soap). I am certainly getting somewhere with his training. He now scratches to be let out of his vivarium, I put his ladder out and he trundles down it for a run around the bug room. We haven’t yet got to the stage where he takes himself home but we are working on it. I have bought him an Elf jumper and a sleigh, I intend to dress him up with some of my other little friends for a photo session this week. I’m not at all sure if I will get the jumper over his large head and I don’t want to upset him but it could work out. My daft photos on Facebook get plenty of likes so I will give it a go. If he doesn’t like the jumper I’m sure he will be happy to wear a little Santa hat.

This week’s photo Barney waiting patiently to be let out.