I’m back from sunny Rhodes and very pleased to see that it is still sunny and quite warm in the UK. The holiday was lovely, not the most relaxing with 8 children under 8 in our family party of 20 but great fun. I did a lot of bug hunting with the kids, we went out around the hotel and surrounding areas with our torches most evenings (my evening bag will never be the same again with half a dozen torches stuffed into it). We found several praying mantids, I’m not sure of the species but the males were much smaller than the females (I will do a Google search later). We found various grasshoppers, bugs, crickets and some beautiful Swallowtail butterflies, plus there were lots of Humming Bird hawk moths around the flower pots in the hotel. I tried to take some photos but they certainly move fast as they dart from one flower to the next. We also saw lots of lizards but sadly no snakes. My hubby and I hired a car for three days and went out on regular ‘snake hunts’, we walked miles along almost dried up river beds and turned over umpteen rocks, we saw a beautiful, large, bright green lizard (also to be Googled later) and an eel. My hubby was so pleased when he found the eel, he thought it was a snake and that would mean going back to the hotel and not being dragged through the undergrowth anymore. I was most upset when my daughter saw a snake on an evening out, she wasn’t even looking! It just slithered across in front of her and then my nephew and wife saw a snake crossing the road, their taxi had to swerve to avoid it. I don’t think they were that interested at the time as they were rushing to hospital with my great niece (almost 2), she had fallen and hit her chin. She will be fine but she now has 3 stitches and couldn’t go in the water for the last few days of the holiday.

Anyway back to England (3am return to Gatwick airport). The bug house looks pretty good, no major problems, lots to clean and feed so it will be a busy weekend. I have a huge number of emails to get through and I will be posting out orders again on Monday. I will make a start on the emails later today but a large number are simply asking if I will be getting any of this spider or that spider in. I can’t reply to them all as I simply don’t know. I already have plans to pick up some new stock today and I have several emails offering bugs and spiders for sale. I will be re-stocking loads over the next few weeks so just keep checking my website. If it is on there I’ve got it, if it isn’t then I haven’t but I may well be trying to get it!

I went to the Kempton park reptile show before my holiday. I’m sure a lot of you went too! Thousands of people turned up and after queuing for a couple of hours, we had to give up and go home. It was very disappointing, I heard it was great but the hall was just too small for the volume of people who turned up. I had friends inside who were exhibiting there but I thought if I went to the front of the queue I might be lynched.

Anyway I had better get a move on now, where to start? I forgot – there were plenty of mosquitoes, my bites are itching like mad. Our daughter had infected bites on her legs, we had to call the doctor which cost €130, we were worried about blood poisoning as the infection was spreading out from the original bites. The holiday was certainly not without it’s dramas.