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
Loads to say!
Loads to say! There seems to be plenty going on in my life at the moment, both inside the bug room and outside in my ‘other life’. It’s not fair that none of my family share my enthusiasm, I know loads of couples who both love bugs. Mind you I don’t share my hubby’s interests either! As I write this he is whizzing around the mountains in Spain and Portugal on his motorbike as he does every year with his friends. Sounds like torture to me. My neighbour has organised a charity event for next week in aid of Rennie Grove cancer care. I had volunteered to take my snakes and bugs along and charge everyone £1.00 to hold them but my friend’s husband gently pointed out that most women don’t like snakes and that I might frighten people away. I thought it was a great idea but at least now I can just enjoy the day and perhaps help with the washing up etc.
No blog this week
No blog this week. Sorry but I was at a family funeral yesterday and I’m up in London all day tomorrow and back up to London Sunday evening too. I just have to get the animals sorted out today and there really isn’t enough time to do anything else! My blog will be back next week and hopefully I will have time to write all the things that I was going to say this week and I dare say a few extra bits too. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
This year is disappearing fast
This year is disappearing fast, I’m sure the years are speeding up as I get older. Perhaps it is just that we don’t seem to have had hardly any sunny days this year. The storms all week have been amazing. The huge claps of thunder and the blue flashes of zig zagging lightening have been more like tropical storms than the weather we generally have in England. The garden is looking good, it does resemble a jungle but I like it that way and so does the wildlife. I am just so grateful to our roofing guy who came to repoint our roof recently and ended up, dare I say it “fixing” my office/bug room roof. It is 15 years this month since we moved to this house, 15 years of flooding in my bug room. Can it really be properly fixed this time? Many people have tried and failed (the roof design is awful). I am so confident that I have dared to stock the shelves with my precious bugs on that side of the room for the first time ever!
Bugs, bugs everywhere!
Bugs, bugs everywhere! The BTS (British Tarantula Society) annual exhibition last weekend was great fun, lots to see, lots to buy and lots of people to meet. I went bonkers again and bought a huge number of spiders, scorpions, millipedes, beetles, assassin bugs, caterpillars – yes way too much of everything. All I need to do now is sell some animals to make some room, I have really focussed on getting the new stock housed, fed, labelled, entered onto my stock lists and last but not least the website. If it’s not on the website, it won’t be going anywhere. I found this out the week before last. I was wondering why my beautiful Giant Lime Green stick insects (Diapherodes gigantica) weren’t selling and then found to my annoyance that I had never uploaded them to the site!
A much better week!
A much better week! The sun is shining, the wi-fi is working and all is well with the world (I’m sure I could think of something to moan about if I tried!). I have been concentrating on getting the bug room clean and cleared this week as I know that next week will be manic. I will be buying in a great deal of new stock this weekend and will therefore have little time for my usual weekly tasks.
Unbelievable week
Unbelievable week, to quote from that excellent show ‘The Good Place’, what the fork! I took no orders at all over the bank holiday weekend. I know people were out in the sunshine but after such an amazing April, to have no orders come in was truly weird and proves my point that I could never employ anyone to help me because at times there is plenty of work looking after the animals and money going out but zero money coming in.
Crazy April
Crazy April, what a busy month that was. Perhaps everyone wanted to buy new pets because the weather was such rubbish? We had a couple of sunny days but it was mostly cold and wet here. I still used a few heat packs in my orders this week, absolutely crazy and unheard of at this time of year. The website review competition was drawn this month by my able assistant (mother in-law and not all that able). The winner was Joanne, who wrote a very nice review on her Mexican Red Rump tarantula.
Feeling guilty but just too busy
Feeling guilty but just too busy to write my blog this week. With so much work to do on my website, I just can't justify the time it takes me to sit and write the blog. That doesn't mean I am lounging in the garden, out in the sunshine (I wish). I have set aside today to knuckle down and catch up on paperwork. I've spent a lot of time getting all my new animals housed and fed over the last couple of weeks and now I need to tackle the pile of paperwork that has yet again piled up on my desk. I really have to look at all the GDPR information that I have and 'try' and work out how it relates to me and what I need to do. It is something to do with privacy and storing data and I could be sued if I don't do it, is all I know at the moment! It's great to see sunshine this week (even if it is only through my office window). The bramble is once again growing and I haven't had to use any heat packs in my parcels for the last few days. Anyway, as I said I haven't got time for this
Bugs everywhere!
Bugs everywhere! The bug show in Newark last weekend was great, really friendly, not as large as some of the shows but more intimate and it was certainly packed with visitors from far and wide (see my Facebook page for photos). I got to see old friends from ‘up north’ who I haven’t seen for ages which was really nice. Well done to Warren Davis for organising the event.
I’m back!
I’m back! Well I haven’t actually been anywhere but I haven’t written a blog for a couple of weeks and to be honest it was touch and go today. Bank holidays really do create problems when it comes to posting out orders. I was paranoid about not having anything held up in the post before Easter as the Friday and Monday were both bank holidays so I ended up with a big backlog of orders to get off this week. Thankfully my ‘able assistant’ Georgie wasn’t working this week due to the school holidays so she has been helping out and together we have ‘almost’ got on top of everything.