Thursday, June 16, 2011

East of Allen Highlights

Hard to believe it has been three years of East of Allen blogging.  Time for a little reflection and maybe some "best of" posting.  

I started this back in March, 2008 to record some Eaton Wash and East Pasadena historical stuff.  Then, in late April of that year, the Chantry Flat fire hit.  I did a series of posts on what I was seeing here in NE Pas and closely followed altadenablog and several other Altadena and Sierra Madre blogs.  The late great Foothill Cities blog tied the coverage together and, before I knew it, I was blogging. 

Since then, I've done about 180 posts, nearly all of them with photos.  The historical posts are my favorites and they often take a fair amount of time.   But, there are a few animal posts that I particularly like too. 

What posts have been most popular with visitors?   The mouse wins.  According to Google statistics more people have viewed a post I did on a baby mouse than any other East of Allen post.   That's a little sobering given the work I've put into other posts.  But, them's the facts.  The bear, snake and alligator lizard posts are also particularly popular.   Go figure.

Posts about the Hastings Ranch Christmas lights have also attracted a relatively high number of views. If East Pasadena has a top attraction, it is probably the Hastings Christmas lights and, of course, post Rose Parade float viewing.     

It has been fun to get emails from people who are interested in something I've posted.  I received some interesting correspondence from collectors following my post about the famous portrait of President Lincoln that is mysteriously missing from the Pasadena Public Library.   And, I've received a number of emails about  my St. Luke's posts -- some from people who were born at St. Luke's, one from a producer and others interested in the proposed St. Luke's development.  The series on Earthside Nature Center  was plain old fun to do and also elicited some interesting feedback from persons who knew the garden's founders.  

So, now I have a new category called "highlights" and may in the coming months re-post some of my own highlights from this blog.      

6 comments:

pasadenapio said...

Keep up the great work, Mike!

Alice said...

Baby Mouse . . .

I actually understand, it was my niece's favorite series of books.

My blog, the favorite post is
"squeeze me flat" a line from
one of the ALICE books.

I have NO idea why people are Googling "sqeeze me flat!"

Latino Heritage said...

Happy anniversary. Love the images you share, and if possible, love your writing even more.

Cafe Pasadena said...

You've been doing this since the Chantry Flat fire??! Time flys, indeed.

I only wish you wood blog more. Well I could say that about myself too, haha!

Congrats for sticking to it. It's not an eazy thing to do - it's writing after all!

Petrea Burchard said...

Congratulations, and thank you for three years of great posts. I admit your history posts are my favorites as well. I appreciate the time you put into them, and I know I'm not the only one!

Pasadena Adjacent said...

Earthside Nature Center was my favorite. Something I was completely unaware of. I hope it carries on.

The most googled phrase that leads to my blog is "I wake up and wish I were dead" I kid you not