A DC Year in Review, 2011

2011 was a fun year! Throughout the year this blog attracted viewers from all over the globe with the most visits coming from the USA, and a surprising second place visiting from Russia! Following closely behind were the UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, and Australia. Other regular mouse clickers came from India, the Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Turkey, Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Ghana, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Latvia, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Iraq, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Dubai, the Czech Republic and even lesser known countries such as the Republic of Moldova. 

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My top hits included the following: First up (and by a landslide) was the Rhinoceros posting from back in April, when I posted the rhino in art through the ages and in various mediums, paintings, sculptures, etc. Visitors were particularly interested in two pieces—Salvador Dali's rhino sculpture and Albrecht Dürer's rhino woodcut print. I always wonder if my international visitors are budding art students and keep hoping they will leave comments so we can all find out. A close second top hit was my Ophelia Drowned post, which was posted late in the year in November—those were all riffs on one of the original Ophelia paintings by John Everett Millais. Who can resist those beautiful Ophelia photographs? My Cinema Italiano—La Dolce Vita post was a popular hit; were you all film buffs that visited or do you just like to hear Kate Hudson singing Cinema Italiano? To all of you literary folks that clicked their way to the Shakespeare's Tempest post—are you just cheating on your Shakespeare homework? No doubt it was was Royal watchers who checked into my Kiss Me Kate posting, with Kate and Will's first official kiss along with other famous kisses in history. All you foodies checked into my Lobster and pasta... with a twist posting, which showcased my divine lobster with vanilla champagne sauce recipe, and the fashionistas of the world peeked in on my Pink Hermès scarf  posting in July in which I showed off my 50th birthday present. Brides and friends of bridal couturier Harper Della-Piana visited my Day of Harper-Razzi  and Wrapture in the garden! postings that described the wedding photo shoot that took place in my garden in July. I wonder if it was art students who visited the I'm your Venus posting, on which over a dozen different Venus paintings, inspired from Velasquez's and Manet's Venus paintings, are shown. And Italian sculpture enthusiasts checked in on my Bernini's Apollo and Daphne post in September, just one of hundreds of sculptures I saw during my trip to Italy in the fall, and also got lots of visits from the cyber world. Back in July I wrote a post about the Dale Chihuly glass sculptures at the MFA and that generated a lot of hits after I was  mentioned in a Boston Globe article. But the post that got the most hits in a single day was my Pork and butternut squash stew recipe from November, the day after it was published on Tastespotting.com.

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And finally, the post that generated the most comments? ... The French canned Tuna post from early December. Thanks to all you creative and poetic peeps who shared your Tuna Haiku poems with the world. They were all very fun.

Thanks again for visiting the DC blog throughout the year!

Happy New Year!