Competitions abound

Competitions abound, I have drawn the ‘monthly review’ winner and Teddi helped draw the ‘monthly mistakes’ winner. There were only 6 reviews this month (4 from the same person) but I do appreciate each and every one of them! The winner was Curtis and again this month the winner was fairly picked out of the hat and it just happened that he wrote a single review. The other winner was Hani (only 2 entries received L). Both will be sent their postage code in an email, this will entitle them to free postage on their next order. I too have won a competition today, a £100 Tesco gift card! It is actually the second I have won in this super Tesco competition (buy a pack of Plenty kitchen roll and enter the code online). With all my animals, I get through a great deal of kitchen roll, I use it for cleaning, drying cages, lining cages and packing bugs. I have though bought enough packs to keep me going for several months now J

The bugs are doing fine, probably enjoying the slightly lighter evenings, I certainly am. February was busy so I’m looking at restocking some more animals this month, probably tarantulas, possibly stick insects but I haven’t managed to lay my hands on more scorpions unfortunately (reading that back it wouldn’t be a good idea to lay my hands on a scorpion J). Stick insects are selling well at the moment, I have some beautiful, bright green Jungle Nymphs. They really are the king of stick insects, my love for them goes back to when I worked at the London Butterfly House and we were the first people to import them. Some of them were huge, some of them were bright yellow instead of green and just occasionally gynandromorphs came in. They were bizarre, half male and half female, often straight down the middle. They still show up occasionally when breeding them. I had one about two or three years ago, he/she was amazing. This phenomenon is also sometimes seen in butterflies.

I get quite a few newsletters from various animal societies and clubs that I belong to, this week I was reading the ELG newsletter (Entomological Livestock Group) and saw that a book has just been published about the Wildlife in Cyprus. That sounds right up my street I thought, everyone knows I love Cyprus! The book is £69 (how much???) but I really want it. The stockist mentioned was Pemberley Publications so I did a quick Google search to find out where in the country they are. I was amazed to find that they are only about 20 minutes from me, fate I thought so I’m going to treat myself to a copy. Sadly, I have run out of ‘present’ occasions, already had Christmas, my birthday and Ruby wedding anniversary. I know Mother’s Day is coming up but having moved out (finally) there is no way my daughter is going to be able to afford it and I can just imagine what my son would say to spending £69 on a book! I did think about buying it for my husband’s birthday at the end of this month but I don’t think he would be too impressed. When I rang the book shop I was told that there are excellent sections on spiders and snakes (brilliant I thought but I really don’t expect my husband would think that, I’m pretty sure there will be nothing about motorbikes). I did look for the book on Amazon and it was over £100!

I have bought some seeds from Thomson and Morgan this week and I intend to get out in my beautiful new greenhouse at the weekend. Hubby bought it for me when I wasn’t well and required an operation last year. The greenhouse is quite large 8x10 (I think) and it is built on a brick wall so it is nice and tall. It is really lovely and I intend to keep butterflies and moths in it (hence the flowers to provide nectar for them. I will need to cover the windows and doors, one slight problem is that the two doors open inwards and therefore take up space inside, I’m not sure how to cover them and prevent escapes. I’m hoping my hubby may be able to alter the doors, he enjoys woodwork so fingers crossed.

I was going out all day today but I’ve had to put it off because I really need to stay in and tackle my paperwork. It has got to the stage where everything is piled up on my desk and I can’t find things that I need and bills that I really need to pay. I intend to take Teddi for a walk in a minute and then work from the top of the pile down. That is always my plan but I do tend to shuffle the pile around and end up putting particularly unpleasant or difficult correspondence to the bottom. I don’t think I ever actually get to finish my paperwork. It’s a bit like emails, as you clear one it seems to generate more work. I often email my reply to a question and then find I’m immediately emailed back with several more! I do try but let’s face it nobody enjoys paperwork. I much prefer playing with my animals in the bug room!

I’m still really, really hoping that my pair of Giant Burrowing African crickets are incubating eggs in their burrows. Something is definitely happening in their tank. They used to have one burrow each but now when I lift the cover around the tank, I can see a whole network of burrows. I keep putting bits of food in but I am trying not to disturb them too much, however tempting it is.

This week’s photo: Teddi ‘choosing’ the winner of my February competition J