What Would DJB Do?

As promised yesterday, I’m back with the top posts on More to Come… from 2016 that don’t relate to family and friends.  What I’m calling the “Whatever Else Tickles My Fancy” edition.

In a year when I took my sabbatical in Rome and Maine, many of the top posts are from those trips. If my day job doesn’t work out, I may have a future as a travel writer! As was the case with yesterday’s top ten, I’ll list them in the order they appeared during the year.

I left for Rome in early March, and Time Off was my post to set the stage for my sabbatical. I had a number of nice comments from friends and colleagues with well wishes.  I also got to showcase my cool “What Would DJB Do?” mug!

My first post from the American Academy came on March 10th, and was entitled Looking Back, Looking Forward.  After that, I was posting 3-4 times per week for the remainder of the six weeks we were in Italy.

Claire joined us for a week in Italy soon after we arrived, and we took the opportunity to visit Florence and Tuscany.  48 Hours in Tuscany chronicled our weekend in this wonderful Italian region.

At the top of Florence: proof that we made it!

Among our day trips while in Italy, Orvieto was right at the top of the favorites.  Orvieto:  A Jewel in Umbria was my attempt to cover all we had seen…but I inadvertently left out the chapel in the Duomo that a dear friend studied for her doctoral dissertation.  Yikes!  I will note that readers seemed to like the pictures in this post.

Duomo di Orvieto facade from the street

Late in our time in Rome we were looking for a break from all the saints and visited Villa Farnesina.  The Pleasures of Villa Farnesina is primarily pictures of a wonderful Roman villa and its artwork.

When one topic isn’t enough for one post, I’ll pull together several topics in what I call my “Observations from…” category. At the end of our time at the American Academy in Rome, I posted Observations from the Road: The “Final Rome” Edition…for this Visit.  I caught up with our last couple of days in the city and took the opportunity to thank a whole bunch of people.

The August 14th post from Deer Isle Maine was entitled Observations from the Road (Or the Deer Isle’s “Locally Sourced Food and Music” edition).  I covered so many topics from several days of exploration in Maine that it isn’t a surprise that this was a top ten post…it had something for everyone!  Plus the food pictures were tasty in their own right.

Fresh local seafood from the Whale’s Rib Tavern (photo credit: Pilgrim’s Inn)

We left the Pilgrim’s Inn (reluctantly) at the end of our Maine sabbatical, but I wrote a love letter to this wonderful place entitled Pilgrim’s Inn:  Our Home Away From Home.  The innkeeper, Tina Oddleifson, linked the post to her popular Facebook page, and my views shot way up!  You’ll have to read it to see the importance of Q-tips to a wonderful lodging.

Pilgrim Inn at Deer Isle, Maine, in the late afternoon light

Another of my Monday Musings cracked the top ten in October.  Loss, Rebirth, Baseball, and Why Old Places Matter was an email I sent to my staff following the Nationals’ loss in the playoffs.  For some strange reason, this season’s loss in the playoffs didn’t hurt as much as in 2012 and 2014.  Lower expectations are often the key to happiness.

Late in the year, Claire texted us about a sermon she had heard at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California.  I watched it online, and immediately sat down and wrote You Can’t Stop the Revolution.  The Rev. Mike Kinman had a powerful message about Mary, and how “God’s revolution of love will be led by fierce, nasty women.”  The sermon resonated with several readers, especially given the politics of the past year.

And there you have it:  the non-family focused top ten posts of 2016.  Thanks, as always, for reading and for the comments.

More to come…

DJB