Blog highlights from 2013

The top ranking posts on this blog for 2013 make interesting reading, I think.

1. But what if Hogwarts really does exist? (February 2013)

The number of people who regularly find me using search terms like ‘does hogwarts really exist’ and ‘does hogwarts exist’ is amazing. Do you suppose they are all kids reading the books for the first time? I wrote this post after a conversation with my niece, who was/is obsessed with the Harry Potter books, and who is young and idealistic enough to wish Hogwarts existed. (I wish it truly existed too!)

2. You can never have too many notebooks (October 2012)

This post about my compulsion to purchase spiral-bound notebooks is ranking highly because my original post was picked up by the web site Notebook stories, making me ‘notebook addict of the week’. I thought this was brilliant and am proud to be labelled so.

3. Six reasons to eat that vanilla slice (March 2012)

I think this post made it into last year’s top 5 as well. It’s basically me making excuses for pigging out at lunchtime, and tormenting readers with the image of the most delicious-looking vanilla slice ever. Obviously I’m not the only one in Australia with a predilection for vanilla slices! I think this post is also my most commented ever.

4. What’s your favourite place? (June 2013)

This post was in response to one of the wanafriday topics. Within I declare my favourite place to be whichever place is making me happy at any particular point in time. I also might have mentioned ‘grinning like a zany’.

5. Is it OK for strong women to cry? (February 2013)

As I was going through a rough patch at the beginning of the year, I found myself analysing my rather volatile emotions and comparing them with how women and tears are portrayed in fiction. This post attracted quite a good discussion in the comments, actually. I’m rather glad this one is still being read on occasion by people.

A couple of other interesting posts (both somewhat ranty, I’m afraid) from last year include:

• Women adopting male noms: When will we be past this?
• International Women’s Day must truly empower, not demean

The past year also saw me explore some new directions on this blog. In particular, I introduced posts about travel (including travelling in the 90s), kicked off the A-Z of Fantasy series, dabbled in the WordPress weekly photo challenge and participated in the wanafriday blog themes.

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As an aside, whenever January comes around, I seem to find myself in ‘blog makeover’ mode. However, I’m something of a nuff nuff when it comes to html and css, so my adjustments tend to be rather simple. My grand achievement for this evening is the addition of social media icons in the sidebar. Woot! Stay tuned for further improvements.

Any feedback on either the visual aspects of the blog or thoughts on the content will be accepted gratefully. Are there any topics you’d like to see come around more frequently?