A Creative Spirit
My Blog, 'Piglet in Portugal,' was born on May 21st, 2010. YaY! 14 years old. How time flies and how the blogging community has changed over the last 14 years! During this time, I have published 662 posts and acquired 3,309 subscribers I still remember my daughter 'Piglet in France' sitting at my computer and... Continue Reading →
Are you sitting comfortably? Do you take your coffee with or without sugar? Or maybe you would like something stronger? When we were in Annecy, France, a couple of weeks ago, I was heartened to see this street art in one of the back streets by a cafe. The artists were protesting about the use... Continue Reading →
It's Sunday, and it's cocktails at Lagos Marina, not coffee!! Reviewing life over the last week, I managed to circle back and catch up with my own tail. I completed 'dry January' with flying colours and celebrated my month of sobriety with a strawberry gin with tonic. Trust me when I say it took a... Continue Reading →
Because I have such a wide range of hobbies and interests, I am the type of person who needs a 30-hour day! I'm meant to be retired, but I manage to fill EVERY minute. The phrase, 'I'm bored,' does not form part of my vocabulary. I've only listed my top five, so I will also... Continue Reading →
Checkouts not manned by staff have apparently neither revolutionised our shopping experience nor cut operating costs as expected. In my opinion, this is proof you can't always replace humans with technology-- and why should we? My number one concern when shops implemented self-service checkouts was that of the human cost. The army of part-time workers, such... Continue Reading →
Yep, packing the physical contents of your life into cardboard boxes is a fantastic way to declutter your life significantly when you are downsizing for retirement. All trivial trinkets and junk you've collected over the years when you only have limited space in the removal lorry and a tiny house does help to focus the mind.... Continue Reading →
It took me all of three seconds to answer this question - clue - the name of my website. I absolutely adore pigs, especially piglets! I realise the most popular choice will probably be dogs or cats ... but piglets, hye, you've got to admit they are cute. Brown piglets with black spots Prize porker... Continue Reading →
In what ways do you communicate online? Do you remember life before the internet when we relied on snail mail and landlines, and our only visual link to the outside world was TV, newspapers and magazines? When phones were phones. You dialled a number and made a call? Roll on 30 years, and now we... Continue Reading →
I have not posted anything to my blog for a while so today I decided to get back in the swing of things and rejoin the Six on Saturday gardening bloggers. I spent ages wobbling around on my crutches to take photographs of my garden. Excited, I logged on to my WordPress account to create... Continue Reading →
I have been on blogging hiatus for the last few years because I became involved in a writing forum and ended up running the place. I've now stepped away and returned to blogging only to discover 97% of my old blogging buddies have disappeared. When I started my blog back in May 2010 most of... Continue Reading →
I need some help from my followers, please. As it says on the tin I am 'Revamping My Blog', aka moving the furniture around and giving it a fresh coat of paint. After seven years it's well overdue some TLC. I've tried posting to the WP Community Pool and I've lost the will to live... Continue Reading →
Photocredit: Pixababy.com I've just been notified by WordPress it's my seven year anniversary. Have I really been blogging that long? My goodness, how time flies! Unfortunately, due to my admin interests at writingforums.com I neglected my blog and lost touch with my blogging buddies for several years. Now I click through my blogroll and most... Continue Reading →
Dear followers, I’ve signed up to the WordPress Blogging 201 (basically how to improve your blog). Over the next two weeks we are given various assignments. This is my first assignment and I need your help, please. Today’s 201 assignment is to consider what I want to accomplish with my blog. Good question! I’m curious,... Continue Reading →
When Steph Blog in France suggested a Christmas Blog Hop I thought what a great idea and maybe someone can share their tried and tested recipe for Bolo Rei as it originates in France! Bolo Rei is not simply a cake but also symbol of the Christmas season in Portugal as it is in France.... Continue Reading →
Sometimes we set ourselves personal goals swept away on the crest of a wave by a moments reckless enthusiasm or, as in my case on this occasion, after a glass or three of cheap heady red wine. We believe anything is possible if we put our minds to it and of course it is if... Continue Reading →
It's day sixteen of the NaNoWriMo and we are now over half way through the challenge and although weary at times I'm still determined to succeed. However, little did I know when I committed to NaNoWriMo that I would travel to France thereby losing two days travelling, unable to write as my adorable baby granddaughter... Continue Reading →
When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grand kids and 2 great grand... Continue Reading →
I've often asked the question "What is the difference between a blogger and a writer?" Any ideas please, because I'm about to find out! I'm not sure why I decided to sign up and commit myself to the NaNoWriMo(National Novel Writing Month) challenge other than my family have been nagging me to write a novel... Continue Reading →
I love painting street scenes, however because I'm absolutely hopeless at drawing and especially "perspective" I needed to find a creative way to overcome my lack of talent. With this in mind I decided to cheat and with the aid of Photoshop created an outline picture from one of my favourite photographs which I could... Continue Reading →
On Monday I met with one of my blogging buddies Sami of "sami's colourfulworld". Sami lives in Perth, Western Australia and was in Portugal visiting family. When she suggested she delivered the prize I'd won on her 100th blog POST and GIVEAWAY in person, I was absolutely delighted! It felt surreal to chat face-to-face rather... Continue Reading →
Piglet in Portugal 