Piglet’s 2nd Blogiversary

Two years ago today my daughter Piglet in France introduced me to the WordPress blog platform,  and Piglet in Portugal was born.

She patiently (she is not renowned for her patience when demonstrating techie stuff on the PC to Mother) showed me how to make posts, include links and upload photographs, create pages and a blogroll etc.

I missed my first “Blogiversary” due to the excitement of the arrival of our first grandchild in France. So I will celebrate my 2nd instead!

My very first post was Yummy Carrot Cake… mmm. With a name like Piglet you can imagine a recipe was the first idea that came into my mind as my fingers hovered nervously above the keyboard!

Over the next few months I made various posts and visitors came and went, but I was deafened by their silence in the comments section. Was I talking to myself? Didn’t anyone have an opinion, good or bad? So like many new bloggers I found blogging a lonely existence, in fact, so lonely I was even tempted to approve the SPAM comments out of desperation!

Stupidly it never crossed my mind to venture beyond the bounderies of my blog, to seek other bloggers across the globe, until WordPress launched the “postaday” and “postaweek” challenge. I tiptoed tentatively outside my comfort zone and answered their appeal for blogging buddies and, much to my relief and sanity, soon discovered many like-minded bloggers.

Interests varied from crafts, cookery and gardening, to humour, writing and the “meaning of life” to name a few. We supported each other through the “ups” and “downs” with emials, comments and likes, and over time we became virtual friends.

I was going to give a shout out to all my blogging buddies in this post, but if I missed anyone in a senile moment I would feel awful, so please check out some of the great blogs on my blog roll!

As well as being my 2nd Blogiversary this is also my 200th post!

I’ve also created two other blogs over the last year
Portugal in Pictures – A daily snapshot of Portugal. I love taking photographs so the blog is an experiemnt. Not sure about the black background – what do you think?

Plus, a healthier eating blog – The Piglets Healthy Eating Blog where PIF and I can share recipes.

We are were trying to follow an anti-inflammatory diet. This involved cutting out gluten and dairy from our diet. Although I found this extremely dificult when I stuck rigididly to the new eating plan, I did feel about 20years younger, lost weight, my IBS disappeared and so did my cronic heartburn. Plus I could even see my toes when I looked down at my feet! The diet, unfortunately has fallen by the wayside recently and I’m suffering the consequences. Serves me right – no sympathy please! I’m now back on the wagon so if you have any dairy-free and/or gluten-free recipes please, PLEASE share!

Finally, a big THANK YOU for everyones support over the last two years it’s really appreciated. I’ve met (virtually of course) some wonderful people whose posts have made me laugh and cry plus I have gained so much from their collective knowledge.

PS sorry about the dodgy cake picture above – I painted it out of desperation because  google did not understand my plea for free cake images .  Anyone know of any good “free” cartoon style image sites?

Thanks once again!