My son knows his mother loves ~~talking...a lot...~~ writing and sharing the good things in life, so introduced me to Hive just over four years ago when it was known by another name.

He told me I was wasting my time on ~~Fakebook~~ Facebook as I could be earning Cryptocurrency and meet new people on this blockchain.
Although I did not fully understand the concept, it all sounded very exciting!
I thrive on meeting new people and learning about the way they live and what makes them tick, and this is exactly what Hive has done for me!

#### $Hive - a new concept for this old gal
I did not quite understand how this Cryptocurrency is ~~minted~~ made, but he tried explaining it by saying I must remember one thing: *money is not real!* Well, that confused me even more, but I listened and the one thing I will never forget is when he told me the most important thing I need to remember about crypto is to have patience which I now know is Hodling, but how the heck would Mother understand that word back then!
I knew he had made good money dabbling in Ethereum and Bitcoin at the time thus trusted his instinct that this new cryptocurrency $Hive would grow into something of value. 

I imagined my $Hive would simply sit in my Hive wallet and grow, and that's where it would stay! 
How wrong was I!

#### Blogging on Hive - a whole new world!
I was super excited and put my heart and soul into my introductory post; did not mind the low earnings as there were many interactions with people from all over the world in that first post; Hive opened up a whole new world to me right from the starting post.

#### Finding my genre 
I write mostly about food as the kitchen is my playground where I can forget about the world and all its troubles; health as well-being is so important and as I lean towards natural healing, I love sharing what I personally have experienced; local travels is another of my passions and I enjoy showing off the natural beauty of my home country South Africa; writing about my experience of running an Airbnb that I started post-retirement, as well as general life issues; I in fact enjoy sharing many things that are on my mind!

#### Storing memories on Hive
The best feature of Hive is that once I've shared photos and stories, they will forever remain here on the blockchain. So, if one day a great-great-grandchild wants to learn a little more about her old great-great grandma, he or she can go searching online as nothing will ever get lost once it's stored here!
Unlike in real life where photos and albums are stored in the attic and often get lost, plus memories fade and stories get twisted as descendants try to piece together the facts.

![PaLizBabieFire.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/lizelle/23tGe1pBDhkDmVFby5HU8npGv8VJrdsTQkX54bKqBk7xgxxtRTsYbfHLgUVRpCHNt4kNb.jpg)


I felt flattered the first time one of my posts earned a tidy sum, but at that stage all I wanted to do was share my little world with others, not realising at that stage just how $Hive would save my butt a couple of years later!

My first love is cooking and baking as said earlier, and I met the most talented vegan foodies like @lenasveganliving,@plantstoplanks, @carolynstahl, @sreypov and @blackberryskunk who all shared their skills with us. Lena has been away for a while, but I hope she returns one of these days!

I knew nothing about vegan cuisine so learned a whole lot from these ladies, and was amazed at their inventiveness like making meringues without egg whites using chick-pea brine. This is also known as aquafaba and is an egg-white replacement in vegan cookery!

![20200119_174103.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/lizelle/23wqu7eG9pSDyyE8Gidtz9tFw3X62ht1bYoiu3rShXK1CzHEdJKRt8UzwWgAoLvGLfrUd.jpg)
I do enjoy sharing the entire process in my foodie posts, so end up taking stacks of photos as I go along.
It is quite time-consuming as I like to research the history of certain foods, look at the nutritional value etc etc; edit the photos, create collages or gifs before actually starting the post.
I love it though as I also learn new stuff in the process. 

![20200118_165143-ANIMATION.gif](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/lizelle/23xAXVgeG91EKmuCs29tLDvDqhpuxqywxEUth4U6MMG6xbBVgw9DnUUXYqccriXmMooTN.gif)

#### The Value of Challenges
I have entered many of the challenges here on Hive as they often take me out of my comfort zone, but it's so satisfying afterwards as I am learning AND making new friends with my favourite of course being the foodie challenges.

![20210409_134852.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/lizelle/Eo8UmkYesEcBuZYu4JaAh7cyLNsTibjbugecF3AtfpRux3KtbXFWtaNMiL3sfqri2md.jpg)

Winning new friends and learning new stuff mean way more to me than actually winning the challenge!

The kindness of many of my new friends often overwhelm me and bring happy tears to my eyes, whereas the sad stories really tug at my heart strings!


#### $Hive becomes *real* money
When Covid hit our shores, I would never in my wildest dreams have thought things could go south at such a rapid pace. 
A hard lockdown was announced and we had to close our bnb for about 10 weeks, so no money was coming in, plus we had to refund cancellations!
Once again many Hivers came to my rescue with guides on how to turn my Hive into rands and cents so we could survive the sudden famine and meet our commitments. 
I especially remember the most valuable guide was written by @riverflows, and then @giantbear guided me on how to turn that into our local currency, so thank you for that, special ladies! 
 
Something else that's been way more valuable than the money, has been my friends here on Hive who helped me still feel part of the world out there, as we were stuck at home with everything closed down and everyone too afraid to visit!
That has been invaluable and quite unique!

#### Starting a new Community
I have not done many foodie challenges ever since starting a new community called [Silver Bloggers](https://peakd.com/c/hive-106316/created) for those of us in our *Silver Years.*
This took me out of my comfort zone like nothing else here on Hive ever has, but some awesome Hivers came to my rescue and guided me tremendously and I will not mention names as there were quite a number who helped me in the beginning. I ended up with the best admin on Hive in @fionasfavourites!
Take a peek at #silverbloggers if you're in retirement or getting close to that phase in your life, as we are a fun community with many of us semi-retired so still really busy and young at heart!


![hi from hive sbc.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/lizelle/EogTcsKZSdL8xz9zrVMsUypt5JCfDmfFdcN4mofRx2i6ywPp6uoYhHvow8aWRSz3N2A.jpg)

***
**This has been my second take on @livinguktaiwan's [**Hi from Hive**](https://peakd.com/hive-104601/@livinguktaiwan/invitation-to-enter-the-hi-from-hive-contest) challenge, therefore not a valid entry in the challenge as such as I've already shared some of my Hive story last year in October, but have added a little about my journey of starting my own community. 
I do hope you enjoyed reading it and that my story may inspire you to join this amazing community on Hive.**
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