Well at least it's March now and the sun is shining but it doesn't feel like Spring yet with all the frost in the mornings. The pond outside my office window still has a thin layer of ice on it and where are all the frogs this year? My garden is usually full of frogs by now, I have three ponds in total and I haven't seen even one froggy stirring. I do hope they are still hibernating and not dead! I will put my rubber gloves on later and have a gentle poke about.
Everything in the bug house seems to think it's Spring. The Peruvian Green Velvet spiderlings hatched this week, more Hissing cockroaches gave birth and the first of my huge Imperial scorpions produced a clutch of little white babies. They are all over mum's back and I would guess there are about a dozen. Scorpions really hate to be disturbed when they are carrying their young on the backs so I have only had a quick peek. You cannot miss the babies, they are bright white in contrast to the mother's jet black body.
My last male tarantula sold this week so I have no males now. Sadly not even the Cobalt Blue. I really, really hope he had a chance to mate with the female before she attacked him. One minute he was prowling around happily, while she was sitting in her burrow and when I looked again he was struggling on his back. I think she stuck out at him just once, she made no attempt to eat him. They are such pretty spiders and this one has the most beautiful blue sheen but they are never exactly friendly. I often come across photos on the internet of a tarantula proudly displayed on someone's hand but I don't think I have ever seen a Cobalt Blue on a hand (and you will never see one on my hand, unless there is a secret piece of glass between my skin and the spider's fangs).
I have had some nice stick insect species start hatching recently but I do wish they could have waited just a little longer. I am permanently collecting bramble from my local Homebase car park as there isn't a stick to be had around here now and my ornamental ferns are looking pretty bare. The Peruvian Fern stick insects are beautiful but I'm not sure if I am prepared to let them eat my lovely Tree fern.
Well, I had better get a move on here. My desk is so covered that I can barely see my keyboard. I really need to do some paperwork today and probably all weekend too! I need to do a stock take of my spiders but I think that may have to wait until next week. The stock counter on my website is great but sometimes I take things off because they look as though they are going to moult and then I forget to put them on again. Unfortunately last weekend I sold a spider and must have forgotten to delete it from my site as someone managed to buy it the next day. I was sure I had deleted it but that's the problem when you work on your own, there is nobody else to blame (perhaps it was a computer glitch!). I had several visitors last Saturday, it was really nice. I'm not sure if I will go back to having open afternoons. I think probably having people call by appointment on a Saturday is the way forward.
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