Sun tanned and relaxed

Sun tanned and relaxed, well I'm still quite sun tanned but not so relaxed after several days of trying to catch up on everything! Cyprus was lovely and we had a great time. We hired a car for a few days and went out snake hunting everywhere, it was brilliant fun but way too hot so we actually saw very little despite hours of searching. My hubby is great, bug and snake hunting is not his idea of enjoyment but he said it makes him happy to see me happy (very sweet, few people would use that word to describe my husband). He spotted a huge Giant Whip snake 'galloping' across the road in front of us, honestly I have never seen a snake move so fast. I was out the car before it had stopped but I still couldn't get near the snake for a photo. I thought it had shot under a large rock so I stood poised with the camera but hubby took some convincing to move the rock. It was very funny as he stood back and said "let me get this straight, you think there is a 6' snake under that rock? Why on earth would I want to move it?" Of course he did in the end but I think the snake was long gone into the bushes behind. We found snake skins everywhere but the only other snakes that we saw were squashed on the road and what was probably a Blunt Nosed viper that shot into the undergrowth next to me (I had a little poke around but wasn't so brave with a venomous snake). I must move on, I could keep going for ages but I will just say that I am hoping to go back next May (just before the BTS show) when the weather is cooler and the snakes may be out due to the mating season.

On the first day of the holiday I found a dead, adult male tarantula on the steps leading down to the sea. It looked like a child's toy but I was delighted to see it was real. It had either dried out in the sun or just died of old age, it didn't look squashed. I was later told that these tarantulas (Chaetopelma gracile) are everywhere in the area and sometimes venture into hotel rooms. I let it be known that while I was out there, I was quite happy to collect up and remove them from any rooms or areas that people didn't want them (who wouldn't want a tarantula or two in their room? My hubby!). I was delighted one day to find an adult with an egg sac under a large stone. I ummed and ahhed but in the end I decided that if they were 'everywhere' I would bring the egg sac home. It then hatched a couple of days after we got back, I was amazed to see little spiderlings running around in the box! I have put them on the website as Cyprus Star tarantulas.

I could go on and on about my holiday but I may save my stories of fruit bat watching, crayfish, turtles, butterflies, dragonflies etc until next week (it is not compulsory to read it, I won't know if you skip over it).

The bug room fared pretty well under our daughter's care. She diligently sprayed everything with water morning and night and kept, fruit, cereal, bramble, dried leaves topped up as per her instruction sheet. The only real casualties were the Leaf insects. I had put them in the same tank as my Horse-head grasshoppers but a lot of baby grasshoppers hatched and I think they just disturbed the Leaf insects too much and also I think they may have dried out a bit too. It's a shame but I knew they were something that I couldn't easily leave, that's why I was selling them so incredibly cheaply before I went.

I have spent the week checking and feeding all my animals, I knew I had too much stock before I went! I am going to be really careful now and try not to over burden myself during the school holidays. It was great to win a competition but it isn't easy for me to go away. The winning cruise is on 1st September for a week, so really not that far off. I have a lot of other commitments that I can't really go into on my blog, I will as usual have my nephew's three kids some of the time. We will be going out and about quite a bit. My mother in-law's health is not too good at the moment so she has plenty of doctors and hospital appointments. I am actually hoping to only post out orders on Mondays and Thursdays during the holiday but that might be a pipe dream, like my New Year's resolution of having every Sunday off (I think it lasted two weeks).

Anyway I had better take Teddi for her walk and then I'm off to do some errands. Hopefully I will have time to pick up some new scorpions this afternoon, there seems to be a run on them at the moment. Lastly some rather sad news, Stephanie my daughter's Mexican Red Knee tarantula that she has had since she was three (she is now 22) died while I was away. I did warn Georgie that she was looking very old and frail before we went. Her immediate reply was "can't we take her to the vets" but as I pointed out there was nothing the vet could do for what was simply old age. I actually got a text from Georgie telling me about Stephanie when I turned my phone back on as we landed at Luton airport. Honestly, couldn't she have waited until we got home? It was just like many years ago when our elder son met us (again at Luton airport) and as soon as he clapped eyes on me blurted out "your rabbit's dead, he was eaten by a fox". I promptly burst into tears and really wished he could have waited until I'd at least got in the car. This time I was more composed, I know she was only a spider and I deal with them every day but on the other hand she was a family pet for 19 years and has always been in our daughter's bedroom. We had a burial in the garden the next day and planted a pretty red flower on top (as she was a Red Knee).

I really am going now - I just have so much to say and thanks to my recent survey when I thought my Weekly whinge could become a Monthly Moan. I now know that a lot of people do enjoy reading my ramblings and everyone who replied wanted the blog to remain weekly!