Derry

In 2011 I visited Derry in Northern Ireland. I wasn’t writing this blog yet, but I was keeping notes.

As we approached Derry, our guide gave us historical information about the 1916 Rebellion through the Civil War and into the Troubles that started back up in the 1960’s and continued until the Peace Treaty 1998, during which time it was essentially a war zone. Most of Northern Ireland is 70% Protestant, 25% Catholic, and 5% other religions, but Derry reverses the first two statistics – most people are Catholic. Back then, people had to own property to be eligible to vote. The Protestants controlled the property and businesses, so most Catholics did not have the right to vote. Therefore, while Derry was mostly Catholic, Protestants controlled the government as well as business. So it wasn’t just religious differences but also the subsequent economic and political inequities that led to the Troubles. Our guide in Derry, Ronan McNamara, talks about that at the beginning of this YouTube:

By the way, when he first got on our bus, Ronan addressed his appearance immediately: his mother is a Chinese Buddhist, his father is Irish. He was brought up in Derry during the Troubles and did his best to stay out of conflict. He now has children and is happy that they do not hear gunfire or bombs. He was also excited that tourists are returning to Northern Ireland and making his work as a guide possible.

Ronan explained that most people were just trying to live their lives through the Troubles, but the violence was all around them. Historically, Derry was a walled city and despite the Troubles, much of the wall and many of the gates are intact. Now the city is investing in its heritage and its future – this started even before the Peace Treaty of 1998.

In 1992 Catholic and Protestant teens built The Craft Village together, paid by the Inner City Trust.

The Peace Bridge celebrates that Treaty and all over you'll see construction projects.

Hiking Mt. Baldy & recovering at home

So, I was finally home long enough to take a hike with Arizona Women of Adventure. Let me suggest, if you’ve been tied to a computer for months, a fourteen-mile hike with 2,000 feet of elevation change, starting at over 9,000 feet in the first place… well, it might not be the best idea. My hiking partner has been in training for a double marathon. Two other woman joined us for the middle of the hike, and I was moving faster than they were, but without my partner waiting in the distance at regular intervals, I might have slowed down to a stop.

Here’s the video:

The hiking guide I liked at Wiki was the Springerville Ranger District Trail Guide. I had just enough water, nothing extra should I have had trouble along the way. Don’t do that – they recently found the bones of a hiker who went missing a few years ago. Whatever happened, if he was alive for long, he’d have needed water.

So anyway, I was able to move the next day (yoga helped), but a blister put off wearing shoes for a few days. So I had a little adventure at home watching a robin’s next on the front of my garage. A previous owner put up a bird house, but I’ve never seen a bird use it until this year – kinda.

#robins #babybirds #MtBaldy #highaltitudehiking #waterandhiking #hiking #Arizona

Hopi

I’d been home less than twenty-four hours before I had to head north for a training gig on the Hopi reservation. I’d never been up there & didn’t have time to do much sight-seeing, but saw enough to know I’d like to go back with more time. Stayed at the Hopi Cultural Center, which was very nice. Taught about thirty miles away. The first day, we had a power outage that lasted about six hours – which meant no dinner because restaurants need power and it was out all over the reservation and beyond. It was really windy. Fortunately, I travel with almonds and will never starve.

Anyway, here’s a video: