Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Sorry, no time for blogging, I will try harder next week! I have been out and about a lot and have a mountain of paperwork and feeding/cleaning of animals to do. I just cannot spare any time to write the blog, even though I have loads to say as usual. Just off to drop my daughter's car at the garage and then walk the dog. After that I will be staying in to catch up as much as possible today and tomorrow! I don't think I have ever had such a busy November, really pleased, it seems the recession is finally over.

Another busy week, no complaints here (that makes a change for me). Things are really moving and certainly in the right direction. I have sent out lots of orders and had no problems reported, even though the weather has turned much colder. The only thing that really stops me posting out orders is snow. Our village is perched on the top of a hill and when it snows everything grinds to a halt. I could probably get down to the post office but I would not get back up the hill again! All the bugs seem to be doing well. It is my first winter in the new bug room, I have moved a few things around but mostly I think everything is warm enough. I hope the new outer door will be fitted at the end of next week. The current door is wooden and seems to be permanently wet as the temperature is so much lower outside than inside. The new door will be metal (steel or aluminium?), anyway it will be much easier to wipe down and it will be double glazed. I had thought of just blocking up the doorway f...

Busy, busy November. Usually at this time of the year I am moaning about the lack of orders but this year I have plenty of orders and so far it's been a really good month. It is probably helped by the fact that I do have an awful lot of livestock. I actually think that by moving all the animals indoors earlier this year I have had more time to care for them. The result being that I have bred more creepy crawlies than ever. I wanted to breed as many millipede species as I could, millipedes are mostly imported as adults and often do not reproduce in captivity. I have been really successful with several species and now have many captive bred youngsters. At the beginning of the year I bought a number of adult Bumblebee millipedes. Although they are a small species, they are beautiful and brightly coloured. The adults were very expensive but I thought if I could breed them it would be worth the outlay. I'm very pleased to now have a thriving colony. The African Red Legged milli...

A bit tired, I got up at 5am to collect my husband from Heathrow airport this morning. He was out in Abu Dhabi this week and certainly has some tales to tell of how the other half live. Me, I have just been slogging on as usual. I have been really busy with orders, most unusual for this time of year but also most welcome. It is hard to keep up the hours of care that my 'mini zoo' needs when I have no orders coming in, I mean it is hard to keep up morale. It is difficult to explain how I am just as busy when I don't have any orders but I am, because everything still needs caring for and things just pile up on me. Despite having lots of orders I still have way too many bugs at the moment. I need to cut back NOW or I will be spending the entire Christmas break in my bug room. I am surprised that I still had several orders to send to countries outside the UK this week. I always worry during the winter but the animals seem to arrive fine so it seems I am worrying unnecessarily...

Better late than never. I didn't get a chance to write my blog yesterday as I had my nephew's girls. It has been a busy half term week with the kids and work. I am trying to cut down on stock for the winter but I just couldn't resist getting in some Imperial scorpions and Rhinoceros beetle larvae. Neither of these are available very often and both are stunning bugs. Halloween was fun on Thursday. We had a family party as it was also my niece's birthday. Sadly, real life bugs were banned but I did get to wear my various spider jewellery and took an inflatable tarantula with me that the kids enjoyed. I'm thinking of having a Halloween party of my own next year, real live bugs would be welcome. Perhaps I shouldn't let anyone in who hasn't brought along a creepy crawly pet! Finally got my Christmas cards sorted, they look so much better than my first attempt. The first ones were awful, I was most grateful to Snapfish for refunding my money. I love taking p...