Virginia Cheeseman Blog

I'm a bit distracted today. I have just returned from the hospital, where my mother in-law is undergoing a hip replacement operation as I write. I waited with her until she went into theatre, it was rather an early start this morning. People often say to me 'what would you do if you got bitten by one of your spiders'. My reply is that I would sit down with a cup of tea and hope I'd be fine because I would be far more worried about going to hospital than the spider bite (oh, I don't like hospitals!). Everything is well with the bugs. I now have several Imperial scorpions with babies on their backs. I thought I had killed off my Huntsman spider egg sac when I removed it from the female but yesterday I noticed that it is starting to hatch, there were several 'little dots' running around. I took it away because it looked like the female had abandoned it, perhaps she just leaves it when she knows hatching is imminent? I have had a busy week sending out orders....

Lots of sunshine, I could get used to this! Sorry if the weather where you are hasn't been quite so good but High Wycombe has been basking in sunshine all week. I'm not missing the usual April showers one bit. Everything in the garden is growing, no more visiting the Homebase car park for bramble thank goodness. My new 'very expensive' Rhinoceros cockroaches are doing well. I was told to keep them on damp sand with dry leaves on top, they are all still mooching around ok. I really need to do a Google search, I have been told that they eat mostly dried Eucalyptus leaves. I have given them various leaves including Eucalyptus but just to be on the safe side I have also given them my usual cockroach mix. I have an awful lot of spiderlings at the moment, some are in together and therefore need separating out or I will end up with a few fat ones. I made a bit of a mistake this week when I bought in a batch of spiderlings and accidently put them into a tank where there were s...

Where to start? Too busy for words, goodness, I haven't stopped this week! I went to the health spa last Friday / Saturday which was very nice but not quite as relaxing as it might have been. On Sunday my husband and I set off for the Newark Bug Fair, this show replaced the Kettering show but unfortunately it was much further away. I went to the show to buy new stock but I was surprised how expensive a lot of the animals were, especially the spiders. I did get lots of new creatures but there were few bargains to be had. I think I went a bit mad and bought some giant Australian cockroaches for more money than I care to admit. I do love cockroaches and when they grow up these cockroaches will be huge but with hindsight I think I may have got a bit carried away. I have spent hours adding the new animals to my website and of course feeding and housing everything. I have also had lots of orders come in this week so I have been busy packing and sending them off and also new bugs coming i...

The sun is shining at last and for the first time this year I didn't feel the need to use any heat packs when sending out orders this morning. It has been really pleasant here, in fact the bug house was a little too hot this afternoon. I am off to a health spa with my daughter, sister and nieces tomorrow. We will return on Saturday evening and then Sunday I will be attending a bug fair and hopefully buying lots of new stock. It has been an incredibly busy week, I have spent hours packing up orders and feeding / cleaning everything. I seem to get up earlier and earlier to sort out paperwork before I go out to the bug house. I really do need this two day break but I must admit that when we booked it I hadn't realised that the show was this weekend too and unfortunately it is about 150 miles away. Next week will be very challenging. I often get asked if I worry about somebody else doing what I do and taking my customers. I can honestly say that I have no fears on that score. Who...

A very unwelcome bug laid me low last week, I was unable to write my blog and unable to move much at all for a couple of days. I'm assuming I had the norovirus, several newspapers have mentioned how prevalent it is at the moment. My daughter also had it but not as bad as me! It really put me behind with everything as I had already had a rare day off on Wednesday and then woke up ill on the Thursday. I am still chasing my tail to try and catch up. I know I shouldn't moan but bank holidays really muck up my system, it is a bank holiday today and then again on Monday. This means that I cannot send out any orders until Tuesday. I will be working over the Easter weekend to catch up on paperwork and bug feeding/cleaning duties (not phone calls). I need to get straight as I will be away next weekend. I am actually off to a health spa, it was a Christmas present from my husband and I am certainly looking forward to it. I will be going with my daughter, sister and nieces so it will be a...