Daily Archives: February 2, 2013

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100 posts . . . and still counting

I opened this blog on 1 February last year, and since then I’ve been waxing lyrical on anything that took my fancy. I’d actually been experimenting with some blog ideas since September 2011, but it wasn’t until early last year – with some encouragement from my two daughters – that I decided to blog in a serious way.

And this is my 100th post! Anyone who has followed my blog from the beginning will have seen what an eclectic mixture of stories I have posted. While many of the posts have something to do with my 40-year career in international agricultural research, I’ve also posted stories on news items that grabbed my attention and many of the places Steph and I have visited as members of the National Trust.

It’s been fun to combine my own memories and stories with information that I can link to on the web (Wikipedia is a useful resource in this respect)  and it’s not always necessary to fill in so many details when these can be sourced elsewhere. Then there are the photos and videos I’ve taken and posted, as well as links to videos on YouTube. An image or a video is certainly worth a thousand words.

And because I get a daily summary of blog statistics, it’s also fun to see which stories have attracted the most attention, what search terms have directed visitors to my blog, and in which countries my blog has generated most interest.

These are the top five posts that have been viewed over the past year, apart from the home page and my bio:

  1. Potatoes – the real treasure of the Incas . . .
  2. Norman Borlaug – tireless advocate of research for development
  3. MI5 spied on Charlie Chaplin after FBI asked for help to banish him from the US (this was a link to a news item that appeared in The Guardian on 17 February last year)
  4. Anilao: jewel in the Philippines diving crown
  5. The Beatles, Lonnie, and me

And my readers come from these countries:

I’ve also found it interesting that there are, apparently, quite a few recipients of an award from Her Majesty The Queen, who will attend an investiture at Buckingham Palace (just as I did in February last year) and are not sure what to wear. I hope my two posts helped them out:

I don’t see myself running out of stories to post soon. It’s just finding the time – and the inspiration to sit down and hit the keyboard. I hope you have enjoyed the stories I’ve posted so far. Here’s to the second year and the next 100!