Spring Anniversaries

We just came back from Tennessee where we spent eight days with our daughter Jessica’s family. Last Monday, March 26, we celebrated my “anniversaire” (birthday in English.)




This week is also my blog anniversary since I started blogging right after my birthday in 2009. We were visiting our daughter Céline that year and she encouraged me to start this blog – actually she set it up. It took several days to publish my small first post (on 30 March 2009) as we could not come up with a blog name and we also were busy visiting all the lovely places near her home in Long Beach, California, such as Mission San Juan Capistrano down the coast.

Mission Arcade by James Merriam, Canadian, 1880-1951

Last week the time spent with the grandchildren near Nashville, Tennessee, went very fast. I did not look at my computer much unfortunately to read all your posts. It felt and looked like spring with lovely blossoms everywhere. It was warm and the sun was shining almost every day. It was exhilarating to look up to the sky through the pale blossoms.

click on collage to enlarge then click on each picture

While I went around taking pictures of the dogwood blossoms in the backyard

my husband was also enjoying the backyard with the grandsons, then resting on the back porch.



Spring was in the air – outdoor



and indoor.



We also liked to watch the grandsons playing in the house or in a play at school (grandson is the lion on the stage of the Wizard of Oz.)



We had not seen the smallest grandson since last January and we watched his first crawling attempts.



He certainly is a sweet 8 month old baby – smiling a lot. He is quite content playing alone, too.



If it was a spring break from kindergarten for the eldest grandson, it certainly was an enjoyable spring break for us as well.

Blooming Meadows by John Joseph Enneking, American born in Germany, 1841-1916

In the Introduction to my blog in 2009 I wrote “The purpose of this blog is to write about past events in my life, from my early childhood to present, not in order, but at random, as the spirit strikes me. Over time, and before I forget many details, I plan to talk about my parents, my childhood and all the countries I visited. It will be good for my little grandchildren…” At the time I thought my blog would just be read by close family and friends. I never thought that people from all over the world might take the time to read my posts or look at my photos. But at this Spring anniversary of my blog I see in the “Stats” that there have been 267,757 page views of my blog since March 2009. The Counter on the front of my blog which we installed in July 2009 shows 224,242 page views up till today. Truly amazing!

The power of the Internet is impressive. With a click of my fingers I can connect to other bloggers who have become friends – some living very far away e.g. India. I’ll illustrate with old postcards. Below are postcards of Madras (Chennai) and Calcutta (Kolkata.)



Many people come to look at my pictures and just stay for a few seconds. Some read my posts but do not leave comments. There is a little map on the side of my blog which shows, with little red dots, where the people reading my blog are located. It think it changes every 12 hours or so. It is always a surprise to see so many dots all over the map. If I click on a dot it will say where the person is located and which post they looked at and that is all. For example just now I clicked on a dot close to Madagascar. This person is located in Plaines Wilhems which is a large district on the island of Mauritius (Ile Maurice) and is looking at my post “A Cancelled trip” where I explained how we did not travel to England in 2001 because of 9/11. I have also noticed a red spot in the center of Russia. I found out it is someone in Irkutsk, a major city in Siberia. It is hard to imagine someone there reading about spring in the Deep South. I have very few vintage postcards of Siberia – below is one of them.



I also like to click on the Flag Counter under all the flags. It shows how many unique visitors came from each country. So far 188 different countries are included with 138,031 unique visitors with Mozambique being the last new country added. I can click on “Details” and it will show how many unique visitors came from a given country, for example 56 came from Kuwait and 1 from Cuba, although I have seen the dot of Cuba several times, so this person came back. This Flag Counter is interesting too - it can be installed on any blog, free of charge – because it you click on a country a page will appear giving all the information on that country. For example I clicked on Djibouti in East Africa. It tells me that 4 people from there came to my blog, the last one on March 29, 2012. It also gives Djibouti information on geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation and military. Below is a 1905 postcard of Djibouti.



You can also click on “Flag Map” and click on any flag – it will show how many people from that country came to this blog. For example I clicked on Rwanda – 4 unique visitors came from there, from Iran – 27 came, from Mongolia 21, from Morocco 59 came. How I would love to see and talk to all these people! Below is a vintage postcard of the port of Tangier, Morocco.



There are more people coming to my blog who are from somewhere in Europe. Unique visitors from the UK so far 7,085; from France 3,786; from Germany 2,019; from Italy 1,941 and from Holland 1,378. The vintage postcards below show from top left to right: Amsterdam, Holland – Blvd des Italiens, Paris – London Bridge, London – Kevelaer, Germany - the port of Napoli, Italy - Wembley Park, Middlesex, England – Sondmor, Norway – Scheveningen, Holland and Nice, France.

Don't forget to click on the collage then click on each postcard to see it better

Of course most of my readers are in North America from the various states in the United States. Below are vintage postcards, from top left to right: Old Windmill, Long Island, NY – Fairbanks, Alaska – Sea Lagoon, Long Beach, Ca. – Hula Girls, Hawaii – Jacksonville Beach, Florida – the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC – Holly Street, Bellingham, Washington – East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio – Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina – Michigan Avenue, Lansing, Michigan – Harbor, Astoria, Oregon - San Francisco, California.



In North America I am also pleased to see visitors from Canada. Below are vintage postcards, from top left to right: Church Street, Toronto, Ontario – Yates Street, Victoria, British Columbia – Harvesting near Calgary, Alberta – Champlain Market, Quebec.



So here we are in another spring. I have met online many new bloggy friends and have enjoyed reading their posts – on a great variety of subjects. There is so much talent, so many kind people – I very much appreciate that some of them come to my blog and use their precious time to comment.

Spring Blossoms by Iosif Evstafevich Krachkovsky, Russian 1854-1914

A heartfelt thank you and “merci” to you all out there who have come and read my posts or have taken a look at my pictures. It has meant a lot to me to read your kind and encouraging comments these last three years.

Last Sunday at the Nashville Flea Market I bought this vintage postcard. I am posting it here to send, truly, my kindest regards to each of you.