Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Where to start? I seriously considered not writing my blog this week as I'm not a happy bunny. The bugs are fine, I got some nice new mantids in and sales have picked up quite a bit since last week. However on Saturday I had my purse stolen on the London underground. I was on my way to a meeting and lost all my cash and cards and then on Wednesday my cat died. I hadn't had him long, he arrived over Halloween (a jet black cat) in a very poor state, many trips to the vets later he had put on almost a kilo in weight and I was hopeful that he would survive. I called him Shadow as he was the skinniest cat I have ever seen. He just came in our cat flap and joined the menagerie. He was a lovely, friendly cat but on Wednesday morning he fell unconscious and didn't wake up. Anyway back to the bugs. Have you been watching I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here? Most of the trials this year seem to involve being covered in bugs. They obviously have a good supplier of crickets, mealw...

This will have to be a short blog as I had a rare day off yesterday and I'm now inundated with emails to answer, plus messages on both the landline phone and mobile. I went to Harrods with a friend, it was a day trip organised by one of the local schools. We had a lovely day out and a good look around the pet department, sadly no stick insects or other bugs but they did have some nice furry animals at very 'nice' prices. I got my first ever stick insects from Harrods when I was about ten years old. Everything in the bug house is ticking over nicely. I have to collect more bramble this morning (nothing new there) and feed the baby snakes (bramble for stick insects, not snakes!). They really are beautiful but I think they have proved that selling reptiles is not a great idea for me. I bought nine Corn snakes weeks ago now and I have only managed to sell three. They really do make great pets so hopefully people will be more interested nearer Christmas. My office is in tatter...

I had lots of new tarantulas come in yesterday afternoon, there are several species and some nice specimens. I think they are all from Chile but I haven't had a close look yet, I will be sorting them out later today and then once they are housed and fed, I will be adding them onto my website. I'm pleased to say that my Indonesian Chocolate tarantula has finally let go of her egg sac and out popped loads of babies! They are still in the nymph stage (eggs with legs as I call it) but they will moult into proper little spiderlings soon. The egg sac was laid on 29 th July, which seems ages ago. I am trying to keep better notes these days, it's difficult because it takes a lot of time. I am keeping better records of when and where my spiders come from. It makes interesting reading but it can be quite disheartening to discover that some spiders just don't sell very well, I have had some specimens for over a year and a couple for almost two years but at least they are growing i...

Another month gone by and Christmas will soon be upon us. I'm working as hard as ever caring for all the bugs but unfortunately sales are down dramatically. I think we are certainly in recession. Most people would class pets are non-essential but I don't agree, when I am down I like my animals around me. Everything in the bug house is going well but the same can't be said of my office! Last weekend, especially Saturday, was a wash out. My poor husband, son and nephew worked flat out re-roofing my office and the workshop on the side of our house. It was bitterly cold and very wet but they got most of it done. I supplied endless cups of coffee and hot bacon/sausage rolls. At one time my husband came in the kitchen with blood running down his arm, he had cut his thumb on some metal. I said that it might need stitches but he insisted that I bandage it tightly so that he could carry on! Hopefully, if the weather holds, my nephew and brother in-law (they are professional roofer...