Skip to main content

Pinch Punch

Pinch and a punch the first day of the month - I really used to like doing that when I was younger! (a lot younger)

The sun is shinning, it's been a really busy week. I'm so pleased that my business seems to be doing ok in the current economic climate, I'm never going to get rich keeping bugs but keeping things ticking over is good! There is always the Euro lottery tonight, £89,000,000. I was just looking in our local paper and found my perfect house, 1.6 million pounds, picturesque with loads of grounds, beautiful conservatory for the plants, annex for all my animals - dreams, dreams. Anyway back to reality, I don't think BBC Music 6 have millions of listeners as they claim, not a single person has contacted me about my appearance on the George Lamb show last week.

I bought a collection of spiders a few days ago, unfortunately it isn't that uncommon for people to be forced to give up their pets due to a change in circumstance. This young guy has to move and is unable to take the spiders with him. Thankfully I have never had to give up a pet. I have thought about donating my 'untrainable' Akita to anyone who would take her but the moment passes (I love her to bits but she is awful with other dogs, not trustworthy with kids and isn't always taken with small women). I feel so bad for the guy who sold me his spiders that I have decided to hang onto his prize tarantula, a Pink Footed Goliath and return it to him when he is able to have pets again (hopefully that won't be years). The spider is a beautiful specimen and he had set up a lovely new tank for her. I just can't sell her, I 'should' make my money back on the other spiders that he gave me (this could be another reason why I will never be rich). I had expected that the tank would fit into a space on my shelves but it is about 2cm too high. It's a damn nuisance as I cannot put glass tanks on most of the shelving as the shelves are attached to the walls of my log cabin and the tanks are too heavy. I have nightmares about the walls all caving in with the weight! I will have to rearrange things over the Bank Holiday weekend but I must also put in the new pond too. My hubby is still moaning and saying that he won't help me dig a hole for my new pond but I know he will!

Last but not least I am planning on starting up my open afternoons again. When I lived in Hounslow I had regular open afternoons on a Saturday and they were very popular. When I moved to Buckinghamshire I found that I was often giving up my Saturday for nothing as few if any people turned up. I think this is mostly due to the fact that Flackwell Heath is quite out of the way. Before moving here we had always lived within walking distance of an underground station. We are within walking distance of Bourne End main line station but few trains go directly there and the walk is up a steep hill! I think it is worth trying again though as lots of people do pop over and pick up their orders now and sat nav systems make it much easier to find my address, plan how far away it is and how long it will take. I don't have a date yet but it will be an afternoon with no minimum spend, kids are welcome and you can pop in for a chat and look around my bug house.

Happy Bank holiday weekend.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A surreal week indeed!

A surreal week indeed! I sent off my last orders on Monday and the remainder of my bugs will be leaving me on Friday. So many people are congratulating me on my retirement but I prefer the good luck messages. I didn’t think I would ever retire but it all became too much, not just for me but my family too. Our home was taken over by my work. The bug room was my domain but the rest of the house had gradually filled up with ‘stuff’, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, tanks etc. and I never ever had any time. Whatever task I was doing, I was always thinking of the next job on the list. People keep asking what I am going to do with my time now. In the short term I will be clearing everything out, especially the loft which is full to the brim. I’m a bit of a hoarder so that really doesn’t help 😄 Lack of time was indeed the main factor for finishing my business but there was also the constant “I only want a female tarantula” 😤, leaving Europe was a big blow, Covid, the animal welfare licensin...

My biggest announcement ever!

My biggest announcement ever! It is with a heavy heart that I am informing everyone of my impending retirement as “The Bug Lady”. I have been running my business for approximately 45 years so it has been pretty good J Things change over the years, I was one of the only bug dealers in the early days and possibly the only woman but these days, every man and his dog is selling tarantulas and “proper bugs” seem to have fallen out of favour. I have been cutting down on stock for some time and had hoped to keep going without the tarantulas but it hasn’t worked out. I expect to fully retire by the end of this year but a lot depends on my wonderful customers (you!) as I need to sell off a large number of little creatures. I still have 24 species of tarantula (multiple numbers of most), millipedes, cockroaches, isopods, scorpions, slugs etc. Do take a look on my website, once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to help me, please spread the word to all your bug mad friends. I have lots of...

Getting there!

Getting there! My plans for retirement are going pretty well, I cannot believe all the wonderful messages that I have received over the last few weeks, many of them have had me in tears. It is very emotional to give up my little friends after a lifetime of keeping them and my human friends too but the time is right so I will keep plodding on until everything has gone. I won’t be changing my phone number and I hope to keep my email address, therefore, those who want to, can stay in touch. I had planned for a big sale on September 1st but orders are still going strong so an all-out clearance sale doesn’t sound such a great idea. I have decided instead to reduce items individually but I do keep changing my mind J It is really difficult to retire over a period of time, I couldn’t make the decision and then stop, like most people are able to. I can’t set a date in the future because I simply don’t know when sales will dry up. The idea of an open day sadly became unworkable, I just don’t hav...