Sorry, brief blog this week

Sorry, brief blog this week. I simply don't have the time as we are off to a wedding today. I was planning on writing the blog yesterday but having my great-nieces after school and then my mother in-law for dinner really didn't leave any time. Next Friday I will be all alone, my hubby will be whizzing around Europe on his annual motorbike trip with his friends and our daughter will be at the 24 hour Le Mans car race in France. It will be considerably longer than 24 hours for her as it is the highlight of her year and she will be camping there with friends. What’s the term? Petrol-heads? Why can’t they just love cute animals like me? Our son is the same, he’s looking at new cars and thought he would bore me with the details this week. He did show me a photo of a purple one that briefly caught my attention.

I received my new little friends this week, that I mentioned last week. Some scorpions, spiders and millipedes. Among them a ‘new to me’ species of giant millipede from Madagascar. They are stunning with orange and yellow segments, they came to me with the name Madagascar Ringed millipede which doesn’t do them justice. I put a photo on Facebook a few days ago of the four species of millipedes that I now have from Madagascar and it reached over 1,500 people. I think that might be my second most popular post after the stunning Wolf spider that I came across in Cyprus, I think that had more than 2,500 views! I am making a big effort with Facebook and when my family have deserted me for boring car/motorbike events I intend to knuckle down and get my new Ginny’s Jungle website and Facebook page up and running. I realise that my bug party business will only have local appeal but I am grateful to everyone who commented on the Ginny’s Jungle logos on Facebook this week. With your help my logo is now chosen. That’s one job done but many more to go. I was interviewed for a local magazine on Tuesday. The lady was very nice, not really a fan of bugs but she wrote a nice piece and hopefully it will boost my bug business and perhaps result in some party bookings. I am running a bug event on Monday evening at our youth club (no money, I helped set it up so I can’t really charge the kids – sorry “young persons”).

Ok, I’m sure I could go on and on but it will have to wait for next week as I need to get ready for the wedding and set off. Sadly, yesterday I discovered that “Pudding” my huge, pregnant, Shiny Burrowing scorpion was dead (you may remember she was housed in our dining room before I went to Cyprus). I have no idea why? There is still so much to learn about scorpion breeding, I haven’t disc

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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...

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