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
Love is in the air
Love is in the air, that’s the way it seems this Valentine’s week. Spring is just around the corner (only 32 days away now but who’s counting? Me!). This week’s photo is of the gorgeous Tail-less Whip scorpion that recently gave birth in my bug room. Mum and babies are doing well and I don’t think it will be long until the babies leave their mother’s back.
Too many hats!
Too many hats! (Dictionary definition: To wear too many hats - To hold too many responsibilities or assume too many roles at the same time) That’s it, me to a tee but I’m getting there, I’m feeling calmer and more in control. I had a lovely birthday weekend, thanks for all your best wishes and thanks also for all your orders, it has been a great week.
The exhibition was great
The exhibition was great last weekend but “oops, I did it again”. My bug room is now heaving at the seams. I picked up some amazing creatures, tarantulas, true spiders, scorpions, Vinegaroons, Tail-less Whip scorpions, stick insects, cockroaches, millipedes and more. We also had a lovely weekend with the guys from the Invicta spider club who run the event. We went for a meal the night before, when we got back to the hotel I said I wanted a nice cup of tea but was persuaded to have another rum and coke (ok, I didn’t need a lot of persuading) but I really didn’t want to get up the next morning. I needed to get up nice and early to suss out what was there. I did stick to my now famous shopping list and for the first time ever, my scribbled notes of everything that I bought tallied with the money I had spent. Maths is not my strong point and I generally get side tracked and forget to write things down but this time I was spot on!
Panic!
Panic! The theme of this week’s blog just has to be panic! Honestly, I do wish I could calm down a bit, just turn the dial down a few notches! I had already been thinking about this theme but yesterday was a day of going from one stressful event to the next. I constantly worry about things that might go wrong but they very rarely do and if they do, they are never as bad as I imagine.
Running around
Running around, don’t know whether I’m coming or going this week. I had to make a choice ‘short blog’ or ‘no blog’, so I’ve gone for a shortened blog! Although you can’t see it, I have a counter placed on the blog page and can therefore see how many people read it. Unfortunately, I can’t see who reads it but I can see how many people view it and the statistics are fascinating (well I think they are). I was only saying to my hubby last night that I’m not really interested in how technology works but I absolutely love using it. I love my iPhone, Apple watch, ‘spy on the wall’ digital doorbell and all. I can’t imagine a life without it now. Many people of my age say “oh I don’t do computers or Facebook, I can’t see the point of it”, I just tell them “you don’t know what you’re missing”. Now that our daughter has moved back home and is only working part time, she is going to be helping me run the admin and planning side of things. I’ve said before that over the years I have needed to adapt my business and take on different challenges and I certainly feel it is a time of change now. Many businesses, both small and not so small are struggling to survive, shops are disappearing and so many bug/reptile companies closing. I was very sad to hear that Euro Rep has now succumbed and will be closing at the end of the month.
A week since the last blog
A week since the last blog, I can’t believe it, seems like yesterday! but I’m going to try to write an entry every Friday in 2018. It actually takes quite some time but I know that a lot of people enjoy reading it and when asked, everyone who got back to me wanted the blog to be weekly, rather than bi-weekly or monthly. I’m not sure whether to put the blog on my Facebook page? It seems rather self-indulgent to me but it would be so much easier for people to comment and join in on any relevant topics, it is nice to get feedback. I often ask questions but rarely get answers. It was great last week when Graham replied to the blog and identified the super snake that I saw in Costa Rica. It was a Black-banded Cat-eyed Snake (Leptodeira nigrofasciata), endangered evidently, so a good find.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year J My New Year’s Resolution – to try and ‘go with the flow’ and stop getting so stressed. I am trying but it has been a very ‘trying’ week, our daughter moved back in after a year of renting with a friend. She seems to have come back with literally half a house of ‘stuff’. It has been a week of trips to the dump and I have a huge pile of things for the charity shop (when I can find time to get down there). I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we did. Just before Christmas we invited some neighbours in for drinks and nibbles. It was great fun but utterly chaotic and ended up with tours of the bug room and then snakes plus bugs being handled by some, while others cowered in the corner.
Costa Rica, heaven on earth!
Costa Rica, heaven on earth! Where to start, our two weeks in Costa Rica were like nothing I have ever experienced before. The nature was astounding and the ethos of the country is super, they are certainly trying to preserve their animals and plants. I am so grateful to our wonderful son for taking us and for our wonderful daughter who stayed behind to care for my menagerie. After the shocking year we have endured as a family, it was truly magical. I have a zillion photographs and enough memories to last forever.
I’m off to Costa Rica!
I’m off to Costa Rica! Off on the trip of a lifetime next Saturday, with my husband, son and his partner. Our wonderful son is treating us as, we as a family have had such a terrible last year. We are touring around for the first week and relaxing on the beach for the second week. We will be visiting all the places that I’ve been told there are tarantulas, snakes, frogs, iguanas and bats (all the things I love). There will of course be lots of other animals to see and really, I love them all. Costa Rica seems to be famous for its sloths, which it seems are everywhere. I’m a bit luke warm when it comes to sloths, they are slow moving and full of fleas from what I’ve heard. Neither of these attributes really endears me to them but I may come back a convert.
All going well!
All going well! Life is good, well certainly improving. Still rushing around with not enough hours in a day but I can see light at the end of the tunnel at last. I have a steady trickle of orders, I would like an avalanche of orders but that clearly isn’t going to happen and so I have been concentrating on my Ginny’s Jungle parties and experiences. This week, I did my first presentation to a group of adults and was delighted that it went down so well, everyone seemed to enjoy it, there were lots of questions and a handling session afterwards (see Ginny’s Jungle Facebook page for photos). It was a 50+ group run by a lovely lady who wrote an article about me earlier in the year for a local glossy magazine. She asked if I had received many enquiries after the article appeared and this got me thinking, the honest answer was “no” and then I realised that all the Ginny’s Jungle events that I have carried out so far have been via word of mouth from people I actually know. The recent children’s party was for the grandson of a neighbour, the Beaver’s group was from a lady who works in the greengrocers and helps out at Cubs, the ‘Bug Keepers Experience’ that I am running next week is for a friend’s grandchildren who are visiting for half term. Clearly, I need to get myself out there and be seen! I have lots of ideas in the pipeline.