Virginia Cheeseman - Latest News Blog
I regularly post to my news blog when the number of readers hits a certain target and I get the time to do so :) I have been writing my blog for many years now and some of my posts have been read over 3,000 times! Feel free to check back every now and again to see what's happening at VirginiaCheeseman.co.uk
Busier than ever!
Honestly, I’m not getting any younger and I never seem to stop. I have such a huge number of bugs to look after (many are not shown on my website because I am trying to breed them or when it comes to tarantulas, I am keeping them until they moult and are ok to post out). I spend so much time feeding and cleaning. I am still learning all the time and doing really well with most of my breeding projects. It’s that time of year when everything is having babies, tarantulas, scorpions, cockroaches, millipedes etc. I can’t believe how well my idea of keeping only bugs that don’t need daily care is going. This means that I can lock up and go away for a weekend at last! Of course, I still have my wonderful daughter to check in but she too now has a baby. He is simply adorable and I love him taking up my time (: I’m really surprised that I don’t miss keeping stick insects but I honestly don’t. I really, really don’t miss collecting bramble (such an embarrassing part of my job, I could tell some stories about that – like when I was thrown out of Chiswick park!).
A new chapter in my life!
A new chapter in my life! You may have seen on my Facebook page that our wonderful daughter is now a mummy herself. It is all so exciting! Of course, I am already Nanna to Bob (my son’s son) and now I have another beautiful grandson called Milo. I will be pretty busy over the next few weeks in my new Mum/Nanna duties. I would never be able to go on holiday if it were not for Georgie looking after everything so it is only fair that I spend time looking after her now.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! The master plan is going well, I just need to stick to it. My work is ever changing, as is life. I’m not a fan of change but I need to continue streamlining my business in order to keep it going. I only have just over a year until I receive a pension but I don’t want to retire, I intend to just cut things down a bit.
Can’t believe how busy I am
Can’t believe how busy I am, this is generally my quiet time of year. It’s very welcome because December is always a short month for me. As Christmas approaches the post can be erratic or snow falls and I have to stop sending out orders until the New Year. Last Christmas we also had Royal Mail strikes to contend with so I gave up after a few days into December. Hopefully this year will be better!
One word 'Trustpilot'
One word ‘Trustpilot’. Wow, what a boost it has been to my business (and my ego). I have been saying for a very long time that many of the product reviews I receive sound more like a review of me than the product and that it would be good if people could submit a review of the business rather than an individual item and then I discovered Trustpilot. A customer wrote a lovely review on there and sometime later I spoke to my website guy about the possibility of adding this to my website. He said that it was possible and then began sorting it out. Unfortunately, at that time I lost my elder brother and didn’t feel able to concentrate on anything new so we shelved the idea. However, a few weeks later Trustpilot was set up as a widget on my website and the five star reviews starting appearing. It has been amazing and I am delighted with the amount of reviews I have received. I read and reply to each and every one, I have been told that I don’t need to but I want to! I am extremely grateful for them all. This month's photo - a tarantula waving
Long overdue as ever
Long overdue as ever J My life is changing, it always has but things are so very different now. Covid, leaving the EU, dare I say it ‘not being as young as I once was’ and last but not least, shifting priorities. The bug room is my very own sanctuary to escape to but I don’t want to spend all my time in there! The master plan is going well, I have stuck to my guns and now have a zillion tarantulas and plenty of other arachnids, plus various creepy crawlies but no more leaf eating bugs J (ok, just a couple of Horse-Head grasshoppers but they are so cute)
First day of spring! A good day to write a new blog post
First day of spring! A good day to write a new blog post. It’s a lovely time of year when everything comes to life. I was delighted to see the first clump of frogspawn in my pond yesterday (a nice
Life is changing
Life is changing and I really don’t like change, I am a control freak (so everyone tells me) and I prefer everything to stay just the way it is but life doesn’t work like that. I had Covid on Christmas Day, which wiped out Christmas and then in the New Year our beloved dog Teddi succumbed to cancer. She was my constant companion for 12 years and it is definitely hard at the moment without her, she isn’t there when I get up, she isn’t in her bed under my desk as I work and she isn’t there to cuddle in the evening. I’m sure lots of you will understand, dogs are a proper family member and they just don’t live long enough.
My master plan is going well
My master plan is going well. After realising that my life is crazy, I am always in a rush and I am not getting any younger, I have really looked at how I can change this. Having just read my last blog entry, I think I am finally getting there. I have sold off all my praying mantis and I am phasing out stick insects. I have some beetle larvae but they take forever and need more space than I have available so I will have to think about that one. I now have even more shelves full of tarantulas and I have increased my other arachnids too. Scorpions fascinate me and I especially love the Tail-less Whip scorpions (they remind me of Costa Rica – my favourite place in the world J), I now have two lots of homegrown babies (soon to go on the website). I have plenty of juvenile black Asian forest scorpion babies, as well as captive bred adults (it has taken years for them to reach adulthood). It is fine keeping arachnids long term as they fit my main criteria of being able to “look after themselves for a week”. I want to be freer to be able to go away, at least for a weekend without having to give my daughter pages of instructions to follow. She now has two jobs and a busy life of her own.
So much to do, so little time to do it :)
Again, this blog is very overdue but I have plans! I have had to concede that Ginny’s Jungle is dead and buried and I need to concentrate on my postal business, which is very much alive! (despite the effects of Covid and leaving the EU). I aim to streamline my business because I absolutely have to make more time and get a better home/work balance. We had a lovely, relaxing holiday to Cyprus in July and it gave me time to stop and think. Our daughter had a nightmare looking after everything, she did a great job but the hot weather was a real challenge in the bug room and it wasn’t fair to her.