Actually this is probably just an excuse to post yet again this very old photo of me at Great Zimbabwe. We were living in Lusaka, Zambia at the time, Graham on a year’s attachment to the European Delegation, in charge of food aid distribution. You can read that story at the link.
Towards the end of this posting we drove down to Zimbabwe, and spent a couple of weeks touring around. Back in the 1990s it was a fabulous country to visit. We simply followed our noses, and drove on near empty, but well-kept roads, one of which brought us at last to Great Zimbabwe. We pretty much had the place to ourselves too. It was astonishing.
Anyway my stats of the last few days suggest to me that somewhere in the U.S. a bunch of students has been given a Great Zimbabwe assignment. I know this because they’re all opening a post I wrote 3 years and 2 blog themes ago: Abandoned: Great Zimbabwe. This happens periodically, although sometimes it’s Zimbabwean students searching for material on why the place was abandoned. It’s one of my perennial posts – not so much viral as chronic. Every year the traffic has doubled. Last year 1,311 people dropped in there.
But nothing gets as much traffic as my post on Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton. Caught Inside A Kikuyu Garden. This was also written three years ago, and so far has clocked up 12,715 views. Of course I have no way of knowing if all these people have actually read the piece, but I find it intriguing. I also sometimes wonder what would happen if I had a ‘Karen and Denys’ blog, and didn’t bother to post anything else. Funny old activity – blogging.
Tish Farrell 
Funny old activity indeed, Tish!
Terrific photo, Tish….!
Must confess that I don’t know much about Zimbawe and its people but I ‘m interested in what you said….
Those walls in the photo were breathtaking. They were built in several phases, the 14th century being the last building phase. And no mortar holding them up!
My “big” one is something I wrote in 5 minutes between the beginning and end of a TV series. Just when I think NO one could possible still be interested in it, I get another few hundred hits. It doesn’t have to make sense. It just IS 🙂
Indeed. There’s a lot of ‘is-ness’ in blogworld.
don’t we just love the surprise of old posts being read!
Saves us having to do extra homework too 🙂
Stats are indeed weird. But they do tell us what people find most interesting.
My “best” posts involve old 1900 Indochina photographs…
(I will check the Blixen post)
Kwaheri sassa
Blogging is really odd when you stop to think about it. Here we are typing our stories and editing our photos on a little gadget and before you know it people can see it 12 thousand miles away!
I like this photo of you Tish, one to treasure.
Hi Tish – how fun to have posts that become a resource like this – and actually you have two! My Mari Evans post used to get some hits all at once – and when I had this location widget – I could see the area where it was being viewed. i am curious as to how your stats show you that it is the States viewing – my WP stats don’t tell me squat…. I sure miss that widget.
Do you not sometimes get the obsessive reader who goes through hundreds of posts in a single day?
Oh yes, every now and then. That always astonishes me. Nice though.
How nice and good to be able to have knowledge of this via stats. Loved your bright photo too Tish.
… and now the stats will show someone from NZ going back and re-reading the post (along with quite a few others I guess). Thank you; I read it this time with a bit of background knowledge, so it was much more meaningful.
The two posts I’ve written that have the longest “legs” are in Shaking the Tree. One is about my great grand uncle who died in the Arctic Convoys in 1942, and has attracted descendants of other men who served in the convoys; while the second is about Gayhurst House in Bucks — where I lived briefly when the Boy-Child was a baby. It was once a boys school, and my comments section has become an informal “old boys” club. I love that!
I remember that last post. And it is fascinating when a piece becomes a gathering point. The Arctic Convoy connections must be especially poignant. It’s with posts like these that blogging earns its colours – in all senses.And thank you for popping back to my post.
I am not really interested in the statistics, I just like communicating. I also use my blog as a diary. But I must admit that I am chuffed when Google informs me how many times people have viewed my photos on maps. I’m almost at a million views.
Million-view man – great stuff. I do find it interesting why some subjects hit the mark. Baobab trees are another popular subject at my place.
Love that shot, Tish. I have a post I did on Al Stewart’s “Road to Moscow.” Although it’s not the post that got the most views in one day, there’s rarely a day when it doesn’t get one or two views. I do NOT understand, but it seems to have a life and following of its own, none of whom have ever commented on it. The stats can’t explain the mystery, but they allow me to see that it continues. 🙂
janet
You’ve put your finger right on it, Janet – the post having a life of its own. It’s rather fascinating, isn’t it.
I can see why people visit these posts. They are both really interesting to read.
Thank you, Suzanne.
Lovely photo. Your posts are always so well written and evocative, I am not surprised you get hits.
That’s so nice of you, Marie 🙂
I have, of course, read both these posts more than once!
Maybe the number of hits are because someone got chewing-gum stuck on their finger and simply kept refreshing the page as the struggled to free themselves from their keyboard?
Ha! You could be right, Ark – chewing gum. But sticky stuff aside, I much appreciate the re-reads 🙂
It’ because you
ritewrotedwrited, tell nice stories.Ah, that’s good to hear Txx
I’ve never looked that closely at my stats, Tish, but I do make note of the visitors’ countries. I’m fascinated thinking that Mom’s tomato sauce, for example, is being prepared around the globe. Wish she were here to witness it. 🙂
That’s such a great thought, isn’t it. Mom’s sauce gone global. Yum!
Oh, I love this picture of you from Great Zimbabwe! We visited there in the early 1990s too and I found the place fascinating…got a feeling of déjà vu there. It is funny what the stats tell us. From all my posts, the Victoria Falls posts and the posts about Ethiopia have been the most visited….last Monday one post got 400 visitors in a few hours…will need to investigate that 🙂
It’s interesting what gets picked up by the searchers and search engines. 400 hundred visitors in a few hours is really going some, though your posts are always stunning.
Thanks for giving me the idea of investigating the stats, Tish…it will be interesting to see why things like that happen suddenly.
If it was the fab turtle pic in the header, I bet it was also the great title that drew people in 🙂
Lovely textured shot of those incredible walls. The place has such power and seems so organically connected to its environment.
It does seem to have grown out of the landscape, you are right, Carol. An astonishing feat of engineering all round. There is so much we don’t know about the history of the African continent and its peoples.
Yes incredible engineering. And there is something profound about it that makes even sceptics feel that it is a sacred place, especially up on the hill complex.
I agree. The whole place makes you look at the world through different eyes. One may not be sure what one is seeing, only that it is worthy of great regard.
I like that photo of you between two huge walls, an almost fragile, ethereal figure shining from within.
What a lovely comment, Paula. Am most touched by your words. It was the sort of place where you felt as if you had stepped into an alternative universe. So many years on, I can sense it still.
What is that place you are standing in ? Those stone walls look amazing.
Great Zimbabwe’s Grand Enclosure, occupied between 11th and 14th century 🙂