Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Something different 😊 I’m writing this blog while lying on a sun-bed on the beach in Cyprus. It’s a beautiful sunny day, the sea is calm and being a Monday there are very few people on the beach. We are staying at our usual hotel, family run, beautiful gardens, next to the sea, it’s an oasis of tranquility. Most of the people who visit are on a yoga retreat, a religious retreat, a hiking holiday or similar. It’s all about nature, peace and getting away from it all. Believe me I have had more than my fair share of things that I would like to get away from this year! I have never seen so many praying mantis, they seem to be on every lantana bush. I think they are all the same Sphodromantis species, it’s great fun counting them up and seeing how many each of us can see. Of course, the well tended gardens are organically grown. The orchard is a delight at this time of year, so many amazing fruits and herbs. I love to sit in the orchard alone with my thoughts and listening to the humming o...

Just made it for this month’s blog 😁 September tomorrow, autumn, no! I’ve been loving this summer, I’ve always said that I should have been born somewhere with a warmer climate. I really won’t miss watering the gardens though, it was bad enough when we could use a hose but using cans and buckets was far worse. I’ve decided that someone needs to invent lighter water 😂 It wouldn’t take half as long if the watering cans and buckets weren’t so damn heavy. I don’t know when the hosepipe ban will be lifted but I can’t even use my cat repeller, to protect my wildlife garden as it needs attaching to the hose. My night time wildlife camera shows just how many cats visit our garden (way too many). I really like cats but they kill so much wildlife. A squirt of water won’t do them any harm but it does deter them. As you can tell, I did almost forget this August post and I had a peek at the stats this morning to see if I could get away with skipping the blog until September. However, I’m very ple...

Long, hot, summer and I love it! We do need some rain for the garden, I don’t think we have ever gone so long without any rain in my life. Sadly, we have a hosepipe ban here but I think Thames Water tried hard to avoid it and it only came into force a couple of days ago. I am now lugging watering cans around (who needs the gym). We have a WhatsApp group for our road, I don’t use it very often but yesterday I did ask all my neighbours to put out a bowl of water for the local wildlife. I’m still loving my wildlife camera, I download the photos each day (yes, my husband did teach me how to do it). We have plenty of hedgehogs, which are my main focus but also, I love our regular early morning birds, especially the beautiful woodpeckers. I will tell you what I haven’t seen in weeks – SLUGS – yippee! This week has been up and down for me. The down is that I had to have a tooth removed and it was a nightmare, the dentist couldn’t finish the job after an hour and I have to go to a specialist n...

Still busy but things are gradually getting sorted out. June is a lovely month, lots of places to go and things to see. Last weekend was great, we went to a concert at the Chelsea Pensioners home in London to see Sparks (re-living my youth). I loved Sparks in the early 1970’s, I didn’t realise that they were still going and have produced 28 albums. Thankfully the weather was good, I had no idea it was an outdoor event! The group consists of two American brothers and considering that they are now 77 and 80, they were amazing! We went to Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire the next day, they were hosting a large craft event. The crafts, gardens and weather were super and we met lots of interesting people The cream teas were delicious and we spent too much money. We left early as we had to get back for a ‘duck race’ on the Thames (small plastic ducks, not real ones). It is an annual event at Maidenhead but we haven’t been before, we went along with our kids and their families. The afternoon...

Phew – just made it!  I have been trying to write my monthly blog for the last couple of weeks but life got in the way 😁 It’s been an eventful month, our gorgeous granddaughter was born on 21st, mother in-law was chucked out of her assessment care home, back to her unsuitable flat. My brand new car broke down twice and is currently at the garage causing huge issues for me. I have an abscess, on my tooth and some very unpleasant tests awaiting me this week to find the cause of my severe acid reflux. Could it perhaps be stress? 😂 Apart from all that, I did manage to get to the BTS show and it was a lovely day out. The sun was shining and I was treated like a VIP, escorted out of the very long queue and told that I should have walked straight in. There were lots of hugs and kisses for “the ex-bug lady” and people were giving me gifts too! What a super day. I went home with some beautiful caterpillars and scorpions. I must admit that my old bug room does have quite a few live creatur...

Why has my busy life not slowed down? I no longer have a zillion little bugs to care for but life is still rush, rush, rush. The garden is growing and the wildlife in it is doing well. Cats are the bane of my life. I really like cats but I hate them killing everything. We recently bought an animal repellant, it squirts out water, so no harm but hopefully a good deterrent to stay away. I love our new wildlife camera, it has captured various creatures, hedgehogs and mice at night and birds during the day. The plants are mostly looking good but having hedgehogs, means no slug pellets or weed killers and a lot of holes in leaves 😂 We had a super week away in Cyprus. It was relaxing and fun. We have been to the same hotel over many years and just love the place. It has a laidback atmosphere, everywhere is clean, despite the cats, dogs, chickens roaming free and the food is delicious. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t good, we had everything from rain, thunder and hail storms to sand storm...

Spring is here at last, it’s been a very long and wet winter! We are about to go on our annual trip to Cyprus, the same family run, calm and out of the way place as usual. I hope it will be a good time to see snakes emerging from their hibernation. It is earlier than we would have liked but our daughter is expecting her second baby in May and I will be on Nanna duties with Milo and helping our daughter. Our six year old grandson Bob, asked why he wasn’t coming with us, I told him that I think he would be a bit bored. He too enjoys looking for snakes so he was happy when I told him that he can help with this year’s reptile survey when we get back. I love the annual survey but we didn’t see as many reptiles as usual last year and I’m really hoping everything is well this year, after such a soggy winter. This will be our first holiday since I gave up my bugs, it is really weird that I don’t have to get everything sorted out before we go. I’m really pleased but it’s also incredibly strange...

Last month I realise that I had precious little to say as I had been laid up on the sofa for most of it! At the end of January, SEAS was super (South East Arachnid Show), I was a little nervous about going as I thought it might be sad seeing all the bugs and people and not being part of it anymore. However, I realised that I will always be part of it and I had a fun time, no pressure to buy, lots of great friends to hug and a really lovely relaxed day. Yes, I did buy Milo a juvenile Costa Rican Curly Hair tarantula for his birthday next week. It seemed like a good spider to get, I love anything Costa Rican and I have always said that Curly Hairs are very under-rated, they are pretty and generally very calm. He will enjoy watching “it” grow, I don’t care what sex it is 😂 It was my birthday last week and I had plenty of bug themed presents as usual. I haven’t yet had time to sit and watch the USB package (Andrew Smith’s Tarantulas of Costa Rica) but I know it will be brilliant and also ...

Christmas and New Year were certainly different! I got flu on 20th December and was laid up until last week. I didn’t get off the sofa, no festive food, drinks, crackers etc. I also had a chest infection but I’m on the mend now, just feeling incredibly tired a lot of the time. What a horrid illness, I have never in my life, been off my feet for that long. I kept thinking “what on earth would have happened to my bugs if I hadn’t retired in October?” Anyway, onto happier things, the SEAS show in Kent is Sunday week and I’m really looking forward to it. Catching up with friends and bug life in general. My old bug room renovations came to a grinding halt when I fell ill so I can’t get carried away as I would have nowhere to put anything new. I may get a couple of praying mantids (a photographer friend really wants to photograph them but knows nothing about keeping them) and I’m still thinking about buying Milo a Mexican Red Knee spider for his birthday next month. He will only be 2 but...