Virginia Cheeseman Blog

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...

It’s nearly Christmas, too near. I’m not ready but I’m sure it will be fine, it always is in the end, that’s what my husband says! I find Christmas a very stressful time, it may be the most wonderful time of the year for children but it’s pretty damn hard work for us women (sorry, sexist, not allowed these days but it’s my blog 😁). Retirement still seems quite new but I will soon be saying “I retired last year” and that sounds very weird to me. How are the bug room renovations going? Hmm, what can I say? It looks like a project for 2026. When the bugs were in the room we had the windows covered with polystyrene, partly to insulate and partly to stop the sun shining onto my glass tanks. It turns out that two big window panes were broken (due to this summer’s heat no doubt) and the frames had rotted due to excessive moisture. My husband has been working hard to build new frames and get them fitted but it has taken weeks. I would love to have had my ‘chill out zone’ ready for Christmas b...

Life does go on but it is very different. I am still sorting out over forty years of bug things. It’s bin day again today so I have distributed, plastic boxes, tanks and wood from the shelving, into my friendly neighbours bins. Many little everyday things seem odd to me, throwing fruit and vegetables away is truly weird, I have always fed them to one animal or another. I’m thinking of getting some guinea pigs, they are great pets, the boys would love them and they could live in my ex-bug room in the winter and outside in the summer. Only a thought, after so many years of being tied down by all my animals I am trying hard to resist the urge of getting anymore pets at the moment. Sadly, my lovely snakes are not interested in eating a plant-based diet 😊 We had a super weekend in Brighton recently, just before the cold weather descended. It was good to simply lock up and go and then when we returned I sat down and relaxed! Normally we would get back and I would be replying to emails, feed...