This year seems to be flying past, June already

This year seems to be flying past, June already. The Jubilee weekend is upon us and of course that means two bank holidays and I cannot therefore post any orders until Wednesday. This last week has been very up and down, I was rushed off my feet Monday and Tuesday and then received no orders at all on Wednesday. It seems that most people get paid at the end of the month and therefore a lot of orders come in during the first few days of each month. I will send out orders as they are received, I hope to get most, if not all orders off next week but I will be very busy as there will only be Wednesday and Thursday that I can post.

I get a lot of feedback about my blog (that's how I know how popular it is). Last week I moaned that I really wanted some giant water bugs that I saw at the BTS show. Well, a very nice reader has said that he has some that he hopes to breed and if successful, he will let me have some. They are Abedus species, from North America (not Africa, as I thought). Another reader asked for an update on my Eurasier dog Teddi, he said I hadn't mentioned her for ages. We are still waiting for her to calm down, she is now 18 months old and rather hyperactive. She is just so excitable around other dogs. This week I spent £100 on a spray collar from Pets At Home. The idea is that when she runs off, totally ignores me and leaps all over another dog, I press the button and a jet of water squirts out and the shock will hopefully 'bring her to her senses'. That's the theory, I will let you know how it goes (I will hang onto the receipt and packaging just in case). I mentioned my holiday, cutting down on stock and setting up short term offers last week. The offers are going well and a few people have asked if I can do a discount on certain animals. If I can I will but it does of course depend on how much I paid and also the time I have spent on those creatures. The thing that I must stress is that I can only discount the item to everyone. Once the offer appears on my website, anyone can make a purchase. Therefore please don't ask until you are ready to buy. This week I put on a couple of offers which were taken up quickly but not by the people who had requested them! It turned out the guys didn't have the money until they got paid at the end of the week, so they missed out and were disappointed.

I have made a start on providing more info on each individual tarantula species but I am actually thinking of abandoning the idea now. I have a template to follow but it takes ages to find out the correct temperature, humidity, adult size etc. for each one. I think it may be better to just let people do their own research on the internet. All the information is on there, it just takes time and as you will all know by now, time is something that I never have enough of. I will however get on and sort out my 'notes to visitors'. I took the entire section off of my website some time ago because whatever I wrote, I just could not make it work. Open afternoons were poorly attended, nobody could make it on the same day, people kept saying they would come and not turning up, so I just removed the whole thing from the site. I do need to put something back on, I think it will be along the lines of ring me and I will see what I can do! I have a few people who regularly ring on the day and ask if I'm around. I don't generally have people in the bug house but I can bring things into the house for people to look at. It works especially well with spiders as they are all in individual boxes. Yes, this is a job I must get done over the extended weekend. I actually have a long list of jobs both for me and my long suffering hubby. Something I am getting to grips with is sending photos of an individual spider. I think I have just about sorted out how to take a photo on my phone and then email it. I can't wait until August when I can get an upgrade on my phone contract. I will certainly be getting an iphone and it should make things a lot simpler and the photos a lot clearer.

I do hate it when spiderlings turn out to be something other than what they are supposed to be. I have only had this happen on a couple of occasions over the years. However I have bought spiders at exhibitions on a number of occasions and then realised that they are not as labelled. I purchased a small spider at the recent show that was labelled as something quite rare and realised when I came to re-house it that it was something different. Although the spider is not much bigger than a spiderling it has distinctive stripes and the species it was meant to be has no stripes at any stage. I'm glad I noticed before it was ordered but now I will have to keep it until I can identify it, I have no idea if this was deliberate or not.

I do seem to have a lot to say this week but I will have to get a move on as we are having a big family party tomorrow and there is lots to do. I have my sister's many grandchildren coming over a bit later to 'help' me. Lastly I will just mention my landline phone. I have TPS which should stop sales calls but the phone line seems to have been taken over by sales calls. I am no longer answering withheld numbers or 0800, 0845 numbers. It drives me crazy when I am so busy, sorry but you are far better off just ringing my mobile number. My mobile phone is constantly on my belt, I always answer this phone but if it just rings it is probably in use (I don't know why my mobile has no engaged tone). You can always leave a message but please only ring during my working hours.

Hope everyone has a great Jubilee weekend.