Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Spring is in the air! The sun is shining, there are frogs frolicking in the ponds and buds unfurling all over the garden. The warm weather can't come quickly enough for me, I'm sure you all know by now how much I hate the cold. My son and his fiancee bought a lovely teak sun lounger for my birthday but I think it's a bit early to put it out in the garden yet. I won't be available very much next week as I will be out on Monday and then away for a few days from Thursday to Sunday. I will probably only be able to post out parcels on Tuesday and Wednesday so please get your orders to me A.S.A.P. if you need something urgently next week. My competition entries are going very well, I will be staying in a London hotel for three nights next week and then I have won a four night break in April and a week's cruising around the Mediterranean in May! It's all great but it is causing chaos with work. Thankfully my super daughter and mother in-law will care for all the animal...

A very busy week with lots of new stock coming in. I now have several species of captive bred juvenile scorpions, which is great because they are generally not that easy to breed. My own scorpions are doing well, two Flat Rock scorpions and an Imperial scorpion are carrying babies on their backs. I have housed my remaining two South American Fishing spiders in a large tank and I am hoping that they will breed. One is an adult male and I think the other is a fully adult female but I cannot be absolutely sure. I thought the male had been eaten yesterday, I checked all the hiding places but then realised that he was sitting beside the female on the same piece of wood. It's amazing how well camouflaged some animals can be. The spiders were the same colour as the wood and almost invisible until they moved. Later today I am expecting another delivery of spiders, scorpions and various creepy crawlies. I do feel that the older I get, the odder this job seems. I know that most regular peop...

A less eventful week thank goodness. The electricity problems have been sorted, hopefully there will be no more power cuts. The weather has been mild this week, very wet and windy but thankfully not too cold. The garden certainly seems to think that Spring is just around the corner, many bulb plants are flowering and there are buds appearing everywhere. I have also seen a few brave moths and ladybirds. Our puppy Teddi is allowed out today as it is one week since her final inoculation so hopefully she can run off some energy and stop wrecking the house. I think she should be renamed 'Slipper' as she is always on my foot, I only have to sit at my desk or stand in the kitchen and she settles on my feet. Things in the bug house are going well. My Trinidad Olive egg sac hatched, there were lots of little babies running around the box when it came to feeding day this week. Actually there weren't that many, they are quite large spiderlings for the size of the adult spider. I spen...

Power Cut Panic set in this week! I went to the Invicta spider show in Kent last Sunday, it was great and I spent a fortune on new stock. Then on Monday evening we had a major power cut, the whole area was in complete darkness and as the temperature outside was below freezing I was very concerned for everything in my bug house at the bottom of the garden. All our phones are cordless and powered by electricity, therefore I had to keep calling the electricity board on my mobile and the recorded information messages were useless. The power came back on around 11.15pm and I then rang the electricity information line to check that it wasn't going off again. I was assured by a young man that it was fine, power had been restored and there would be no further problems. We then went to bed (having resorted to playing scrabble by candle light) and woke in the morning to discover the power was off again. I was really panic stricken (I know I'm not known for my calm demeanour but this was ...