Where to start? Too busy for words, goodness, I haven't stopped this week! I went to the health spa last Friday / Saturday which was very nice but not quite as relaxing as it might have been. On Sunday my husband and I set off for the Newark Bug Fair, this show replaced the Kettering show but unfortunately it was much further away. I went to the show to buy new stock but I was surprised how expensive a lot of the animals were, especially the spiders. I did get lots of new creatures but there were few bargains to be had. I think I went a bit mad and bought some giant Australian cockroaches for more money than I care to admit. I do love cockroaches and when they grow up these cockroaches will be huge but with hindsight I think I may have got a bit carried away. I have spent hours adding the new animals to my website and of course feeding and housing everything. I have also had lots of orders come in this week so I have been busy packing and sending them off and also new bugs coming in to me through the post. I really have a huge number of tarantulas now.
Yesterday I went to visit Butterfly World at St Albans, with my daughter. It is still a work in progress as the project is huge and the work is being carried out in phases. The various gardens are amazing, I can't wait to see it in a few weeks time when all the nectar flowers are in bloom and the native butterflies and bugs are in abundance. It has been sunny for days here and yet yesterday the weather was overcast, it's typical. Next year a huge butterfly dome is being constructed but for this year the tropical butterflies are being housed in a large greenhouse. A study centre is going up this Friday which will house some British and tropical bugs. Butterfly World opens to the public on April 29th, just two weeks time. I was absolutely fascinated by their method of 'planting' wild flower meadows. The seeds are mixed with fertiliser and water in a huge tank on the back of a lorry and then simply sprayed over the entire area. I've never seen anything like it!
All the bugs in my care seem happy and healthy. Another Imperial scorpion has given birth, still waiting for my mantis egg cases to hatch (patience is a virtue, so I'm told). The Ethiopian crickets are breeding well and I have lots of very noisy males chirping away. I have to be careful when sending out tubs of these crickets as I don't want to alarm the postal workers. I don't send fully adult males as they truly make a noise like a smoke alarm going off!
I'm hoping things will settle down a bit next week. I know I need to cut back on stock and stop buying so much but it is very difficult. Now that the weather has finally warmed up everyone is offering me their surplus stock and I just keep saying yes I'll take it but there is only me and caring for all these little creatures is like running a zoo single handed. It really is like a cross between a zoo and a plant nursery. Talking of plants, I am getting quite self sufficient now in many of the food plants that I need. My garden has Privet, Eucalyptus, ferns, evergreen Oak and bramble but I could never grow enough bramble for all my stick insects. I keep looking at getting a bee hive or two. I would love to have more bees pollinating my flowers but it sounds like they are such hard work and nobody eats honey in my family. I would get a hive tomorrow if I thought I could just leave it alone but it seems you can't and I really have more than enough to do!
I am writing the blog this evening because I won't have time in the morning!
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