A lovely life, cruising on the ocean

A lovely life, cruising on the ocean. We had a super week, cruising around the Mediterranean, visiting Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Monaco and Southern France. As a lot of you will know this is my second prize winning cruise, it was very different from the first where there were 3,500 guests, this clipper ship (with masts and sails) had only 130 guests and was therefore far more intimate and friendly. I think someone is trying to tell me something! I feel that for me cruises are 'enforced' relaxation. There are no animals and plants to care for and I therefore have no responsibilities and can truly relax. Back in my real life everything depends on me and I feel the pressure way too much. I wouldn't choose a cruise holiday but I'm sure they are good for me. I love boats and the feeling of freedom aboard them is amazing. The yachts in Monaco harbour were to die for. One was called "Awesome" and it certainly lived up to it's name!

Now back to reality, this week has been understandably hectic. I came back to a mountain of emails (if you can have a mountain of emails?). I don't get mountains of post anymore, most of what I do get is junk and goes straight into the recycling box. I arrived back on Saturday afternoon and immediately went out to the bug house to inspect everything. Our daughter had done her best, it is a lot of responsibility being left with so many animals to care for. Unfortunately most of the stick insects and other leaf eating bugs had very little food left so I had to set about feeding and cleaning them immediately. I must leave better instructions next time! The Privet eating stick insects had been given bramble, it's so obvious to me how to manage everything after all these years but it isn't easy to pass this knowledge onto anyone else. That said everything was fine, just hungry and in need of some attention.

I have however had a couple of disappointments this week. A New River Rust Rump spider decided to eat her egg sac and a Giant Flat Rock scorpion ate all the babies that had been happily perched on her back. I can only assume that conditions were not right. Humidity is crucial to so many little animals, if the cage is too damp or too dry disasters can occur. Thankfully the parent animals are fine but it was certainly upsetting to discover. Talking of discovering - my Hissing cockroaches made a mass breakout in my absence and are now simply everywhere in the bug house. I can't move a box without finding several hiding away. I think it will take some time to collect them all up but I'm working on it. I still have several scorpions with babies on their backs but sadly no more tarantulas with egg sacs. Next week I am expecting a large collection of adult tarantulas. A breeder has decided to give up the hobby and I am buying his entire collection of both male and female spiders. I really hope to get things set up correctly and start some 'proper' breeding. More details next week, I never count my chickens until they are hatched. Talking of hatched chickens, my brother has 6 little chicks but he didn't realise that nobody would want the males. He can't sex them yet but when he can the males have to go as nobody wants a cockerel crowing in their garden. I'm always moaning about nobody wanting a male tarantula unless they have a corresponding female but at least they can live 'peacefully' with me (albeit sometimes until they die of old age!).

I am hoping to get on top of things over the next week. My hubby is going away on his annual motorbike trip around Europe (no I am not happy after his recent accident but what can I do when he has to put up with all my animals). Hopefully I will be left in peace to concentrate on my bugs. I want to try and get some more insects, rather than just arachnids and I need to catch up on just about everything, including the garden (more wild than ever this year). I wish one of my wildlife ponds would stop going down, I am having to refill it most days, I just can't find the leak but clearly there is one. Certainly wildlife is thriving in "Ginny's Jungle", there are frogs, newts, wood mice and the Blue Tits nesting in our box flew only yesterday. I'm so glad they waited until we were back. I just love having the nest box connected to my computer, I can watch the chicks each day on my screen. With my old computer the program kept crashing but with this computer I can leave it running and keep checking on the family.

Well it is nice sitting here 'chatting' but I had better get out there and tend to my bugs. I didn't get much chance for bug hunting on the cruise but I did look for Corsican stick insects (no chance), we saw lots of little lizards, one skink and I thoroughly enjoyed feeding the giant seagulls in the harbour in Giglio (A very pretty Italian Island). I was a little worried as my biscuits were short and their beaks were long. Must Google and see what species they were.