Welcome to Going Grey and Slightly Green.



It is the first day of winter and, if the forecasters are correct, it will be a wet and cold one. I am hoping they are wrong though. If not, I have my trusty gumboots ready to slosh around the back yard in while picking mandarins which are in plentiful supply.

Winter does bring with it my favourite fruit...navel oranges... and a frosty morning often gives way to a beautiful sunny day, so all is not gloom and doom with the advent of the coldest season.  



I have created this blog to share some of my journey as I learn more about gardening, growing vegetables, making compost etc. I will be sharing some of my successes and failures in the kitchen as I endeavour to make cheese, bread, sourdough starter and food items that I usually buy at the supermarket.

Trying to set up a blog has been a journey in itself and I have learned that, once you are relatively happy with the set-up, you don't make too many changes or you have to start all over again. I learned that the hard way. Thanks to some other very patient bloggers from the Down to Earth Forum I have learned what a 'gadget' is, how to make a header for the blog, how to add buttons and now I just have to write a post and get started. I get the feeling I will have some more learning curves in the future where blogging is concerned.

As I don't see my little granddaughters very often as they live so far away, I hope that this blog will give them some insight into what their grandparents get up to in their daily lives and they might even get a laugh out of Nanna's experiments in the kitchen which often don't turn out too well but practice makes perfect as they say! Cooking has never been my forté  and I would much rather be doing craftwork or something else but unfortunately we have to eat.

Miss Three and Miss Four watching the ducks

The members of the Down to Earth Forum have been a real inspiration as has been Rhonda's Hetzel's Down to Earth blog. There are lots of tutorials on Rhonda's blog about making soap, bread making, fermenting etc. and other aspects of simple living. 

Since my granddaughters were born I have also found many tutorials online for making clothes, toys, games and everything imaginable for children. The blogs on which I have found these tutorials have been written, in the main, by young mothers with little children who seem to find time to look after their children, keep a tidy house as well as churn out multiple tutorials to my constant amazement. When my children were little I had trouble keeping my eyes open never mind anything else. I have put links on the blog to some of those websites which I am sure will inspire other grandmothers who want to give their little ones handmade gifts.  



Miss Three entertaining the peacocks 

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and please feel free to leave a comment. Be nice to me though as I have 'L' plates on where blogging is concerned. J