Skip to main content

Friday 13th, never a good omen


Friday 13th, never a good omen. I intended to write a ‘proper’ blog this week but as I am going away next week, I have just run out of time. I never run out of things to say but I frequently run out of time to say them J I’ve had a busy week dashing around both for family and also drumming up business for my Ginny’s Jungle animal encounters. I visited a care home this week to discuss taking the bugs along to visit the residents. I’m pleased to say the entertainment’s lady was lovely and really helpful too. She is going to book me shortly (I forgot to take my diary!).

Did you all see my photos of various bugs with their England flags? According to Facebook it reached well over 1,500 people, with plenty of comments and shares, a very good post indeed. It was fun to do and I intended to take many more photos before the final but sadly it was not to be. I so enjoyed the football and really believed we could win.

Bon voyage, I will be sailing the seas with my mother in-law this time week. We are flying out to Croatia (can’t bear to say the name) on Thursday 19th and are back on 29th. I will be uploading my now famous pink box onto the website today. It is just an information header to let people know that I won’t be around (my hubby and website guy don’t like the colour or concept) but I think it is necessary to let everyone know I won’t be available. However as soon as I put it on the site my customers desert me. The idea is to encourage people to place orders before I go but it seems to deter people. There isn’t much I can do about it but just in case you do want to place an order before I go I will be sending out orders next Monday and Tuesday as normal!

I mentioned in my last blog that I was cutting down on bugs that take up a lot of time and just don’t sell. Many of my stick insect species have now gone and I’m looking sensibly at the beetles. I closed the ‘beetles’ category some time ago and moved the remaining ones to the ‘miscellaneous bugs’ page. I love beetles and used to keep quite a few species but I realised the other day that I actually still had two species of beetles showing on the website that I haven’t had in weeks. I can’t believe that nobody attempted to buy them so they are definitely going during my shake up of what to keep and what should go.

Anyway, I wasn’t writing a blog this week!


This week’s picture: probably the most popular of my Facebook football photos - Lily the Mexican Red Knee, she took a lot of persuading to hold that flag J



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...