2025 Stats

I am going to take a look back at the year. Honestly, I love the New Year for this sort of thing. I am eager to reflect when I get the chance, and WP makes it easy to look back on a single year. (But NOT on my all-time stats anymore though. Wasn’t that included before? Ah well.)

I began blogging on Word Press for real on March 17, 2010. But if you skim through my archives, you will see that my first post is dated June 20, 2007. That’s because in March of 2010 I began transferring all my posts from my former web host onto Word Press before that host closed down. I have never actively sought readers or attention here, and often forget to even mention to people that I have a blog, so it took years before I even had regular readers. Today I have just under 1,000 subscribers, and I think that is amazing.

During the year 2025, I apparently received 26.8 thousand views, 1.1 thousand likes and 1.3 thousand comments. Thank you for being so chatty with me! The most viewed page was my home page, with 1,466 views. Most views came from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, then Canada, Mexico, and Italy. Thanks Mexico and Italy ❤

#1 Ceilings

My post “Ceilings of the Vatican Museum” came into being because of crowding on the way to the Sistine Chapel. Pedro and I did visit in 2021, which was much less populated due to the pandemic but we did find crowding in a few places, and one was among the chattel funneled through the maze of halls and rooms on the way to one of the premier artistic destinations in the world. So many, many people that I got bored looking at backs of heads and shoulders, and turned my eyes up to gaze at something better. Viola! So many GORGEOUS ceilings that I had enough photos for an entire post.

There were 1,245 clicks on this post during 2025:

Ceilings of the Vatican Museums

#2 Crystal Bolls

A perennial favourite. Anyone who has ever randomly or accidentally clicked on my blog probably clicked this one. The photos are terrible, but it’s funny and has received so much engagement over the years that it is my number one post, far and away, with 28.5 thousand views. It was published in 2010, and had the most views in 2016, and another roaring year in 2024 with 2,689 views. Despite being #2 this year, there was a dramatic drop with only 942 views.

Seven Color Crystal Boll!

#3 Fairy Houses

If you are someone who reviews stats like this, you have found a similar occurrence: the same posts keep getting clicked on. Why? I think it would be very hard to know why. One of my guesses is that algorithms somehow make one popular, and from then on, it is always popular because once it was popular and people click again to see what’s there, or the algorithms don’t realize they caused the phenomena in the first place, and put it in front of eyes again because it’s been in front of so many eyes already.

Anyway, Fairy Houses on Mackworth Island in Maine. I had a great adventure finding these, then experiencing them, then researching them! I had fun posting. It’s a blog post I am happy has caught on. In 2025 it received 737 views.

Fairy Houses on Mackworth Island

#4 Anderson School

There is a quirky local business chain here in Oregon and Washington called McMenamins. They began as a beer brewery, but have expanded to cider, wine and spirits. Their original pub to sell their brews expanded to many bars, restaurants, and hotels. They operate movie theatres and spas and golf courses, and several highly popular music venues. They are known for buying and occupying historic buildings. The business invented this McMenamins Passport, in which all their establishments will give you a stamp in your passport if you show up and complete a task: solve a riddle or a scavenger hunt typically. There are more stamps if you attend events like brewfests and holiday parties and tours and things.

Pedro and I have visited a lot of them, in the quest for stamps. In December 2021, we stayed at the McMenamins Anderson School in Bothell, Washington. I am not sure why people click on this one more often than others. It was not a particular favourite McMenamins stays so far – except for the pool & poolside restaurant, which were both excellent. Now the most interesting thing about this post is a long discussion between me and a reader who was hoping this was the school she used to attend when she was in Kindergarten. I completed a lot of online research on her behalf, ha ha!!

McMenamins Anderson School

#5 Modocs

Fellow blogger Andrew at Have Bag, Will Travel mentioned that it’s disappointing when he puts a lot of effort into a post and then for whatever reason, it gets few views. I feel that pain now and then as well. But here we have the opposite: I worked my butt off for an end-of-term final paper on a subject dear to me for a grumpy, begrudging Native professor with a chip on his shoulder. I split the paper into two parts because it was so long, and this one, Modocs As They Were, is part one. It has been in the top ten since I posted it in 2020. IN 2025, it received 705 views.

Modocs as they were

I wish the best possible for you all. Some of you are struggling with your own personal challenges, like sickness, or loss, or fear of what the future might bring. Some of you are celebrating, and finding – despite it all – some of the best the world has to offer. Most of you are in there in between, caught in life’s jumble of good and bad. My New Year’s Hope For You (and for me): I hope you notice the good more often in 2026 than you did in 2025. It’s always there, but doesn’t shout for attention like the bad does.

I love you. Your blogger friend, Crystal.