Wicklow Day Two - Less Easy

The day started with an overview on a map that made all the distances seem manageable. The map, of course, is flat, so it left out an important detail.

I've learned that when the Irish say "walk", they mean any or all of "walk", "hike" and "climb". Especially climb.

We climbed up out of the valley where we'd spent the night.

And then kept climbing. And climbing. Up a rise so steep and so long we had to wonder if we'd been lied to. When Kevin, our guide, said "this is all the climbing," I said, "I don't believe you."

After five hours of climbing, we ate lunch on soft moss and bracken under towering Scots pines, then gratefully started our way down to Glendalough. We checked into our hotel and met a man who told us all about the Monastic City built around the church-sponsored propaganda featuring St. Kevin. 

Tomorrow we're climbing some more, up another mountain, because that's how you "walk" in Ireland.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

That's 1,000 years of peat self-composted in a seam
underneath the forest floor, densely black, intensely
carbon-rich and, until recently (and soon to be again)
burned as fuel in Ireland. 

Wicklow Day One - The "Easy" Day

Our day started in Connolly Station where we caught the train to Wicklow with our guide Kevin and the two other people on the tour, sisters Lynne and Keira from the US side of the Great Lakes. 

The Wicklow region is mountainous (at least as mountainous as things get around here) with lots of sheep farms.

... Ands lots of denuded hillsides, the better, I suppose, to see the beautiful rolling landscape.

The hills were so recently scraped free of trees, they haven't even had time to come by and pick up the logs.

Where the reforestation is well established, the Wicklow Way wends down hobnailed boards set among soft green hillocks, where moss has overgrown the old shorn trunks of trees.

We started late in the day today -- after two p.m. -- but the step counter in my phone says we walked about 15K. Kevin, our guide, assured us the next days would be even more challenging. 

Hooray. 

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Lynne, Keira, Kevin, Bruce.

Among the Greats

I like Dublin. It has the greatest cafe culture in the Western world, no high-rise buildings, a pub every half-block and lots of public art that everyone takes very seriously.

Today we saw the Book of Kells and the Long Room at the Trinity College library, the statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square, the Irish National Gallery, the National Print Museum, the GPO Museum and the statue of James Joyce across from the GPO, plus The Dublin Spire.

The Spire replaced the destroyed Nelson's pillar 
which once stood by the GPO. 

Our first day here, this was Bruce after his 
trans-Atlantic flight.

But today Bruce was more himself, 
and ready to hang with the greats,
like James Joyce...

... and Oscar Wilde.

Tomorrow we start our hiking holiday. More posts from the road!

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Merrion Square tulips

Jet Lagged & Sleep Deprived, Dublin Edition

Bruce at the Brazen Head Pub - Ireland's oldest, rumoured to
have been in operation since 1198 C.E., located in Merchant's Quay.
I recommend the seafood chowder.

It's true what they say. Guinness tastes different in Ireland. 

We're in Dublin for a couple of days before we go on a six day walking tour in Wicklow. Then we're spending a few more days in Dublin.

James Joyce in St. Stephen's Green

Notes on the adventure so far: 

We drove in from the airport with the least talkative cab driver in Ireland. Our first local lesson, practically the only thing our driver said, was why they call it the Halfpenny Bridge (guess). Second lesson, the streets make no sense, so pubs and churches are the landmarks to trust.

Tomorrow, the Book of Kells and the National Print Museum, plus whatever else strikes our fancy.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Easter Weekend 2022

Finally, something we can all agree on.

Two Fridays ago, Dianne regained her patience with my constant questioning of her campaign strategy and said "you're a thoughtful person. If you have ideas, call Rob and talk with him." Rob is her campaign manager. 

But I don't have ideas. I just have questions. If I were Rob, I know I would just love it if a stranger called me up and started asking me questions about how I do my job. 

I did poke around on the Internet for "alternative campaign strategies" and "guerrilla campaign strategies." 

What I found tells me I'm in over my head.

This Friday saw the start of Passover so Dianne didn't show up for door-knocking. Neither did I. 

****

Throughout Toronto, are signs of support for Ukraine. The placard at the top of this post is one of several installed at the corner of Yonge and Bloor. And then there's this at the corner of St. Clair E. and Ferndale Avenue, by the Russian embassy:

Thanks for reading!

Happy Easter!

Karen

 

Very Toronto

I don't know if this is a Toronto-only thing, but I have only ever seen this kind of thing in Toronto, where someone rents a storefront so they can use the window as a billboard, often espousing little-guy-against-big-government sentiments. This shop is on Bloor west of Dufferin. In case you can't  read the sign at the bottom of the window, it says "Julie Dzerowicz doesn't give a damn about you."

Right next door to the billboard storefront,
Julie Dzerowicz's constituency office.

When she speaks to a voter on her canvassing rambles, Dianne Saxe often asks the question "what could I do to win your support?" meaning, what issue matters most to them so she can tell them what she would do about it.

Responses to this question range from stares, both blank and panicked, to "I dunno"s, to thoughtful statements about housing, climate change or mental health.

This week, a man raking last year's leaves out of his front garden said, in response to Dianne's question, "In 1934 the government passed the Bank of Canada Act," and Dianne tried gamely to turn the talk to something within provincial jurisdiction. 

My favourite canvassing moment this week was when, after Dianne had extricated herself from Bank of Canada Guy, and we had made our way further down the block, he followed us in his car, shouting Dianne's name out the open window, because there was just one more thing he wanted to tell her. 

Democracy. Ya gotta love it.

Dianne and I talk a lot as we scurry from door to door. Sometimes what I say pisses her off, like this week when I asked how it could possibly be a good use of her time to spend two hours to talk to almost no people, on their doorsteps, in the rain.

Patiently, Dianne replayed for me the received wisdom about how going door to door and talking to people face to face makes the biggest impression in a campaign. Yes, I said, but you need at least three things to be true to make that a viable strategy. People need to be home (and they're not) and they need to talk to you (few do, or they're Bank of Canada Guy)) and you need an army of door knockers (which Dianne does not have). 

I said I felt like she was using the big parties' playbook, which forced her to play to her weaknesses not her strengths.

It was around then that Dianne lost patience.  

But it is a dilemma. Dianne's a teeny tiny dog in a big dog fight. Her fundraising has gone well, so she has a budget for an office, staff and a social medial campaign. Now all she has to do is grab the attention of about forty to fifty thousand people, get them to break their usual voting patterns (the Greens took less than 6% of the riding vote in the last election; the NDP is the incumbent) just put two Greens into the legislature where there once was one.

Piece of cake.

About those Volunteers

I won't be able to help Dianne on the 22nd and 29th of April. If you have two hours (2 to 4 p.m.), good walking shoes and are expert at dressing in layers, maybe you could help Dianne. You can sign up to volunteer here. 

Molly The Dog Redux

In 2014 I finished the blog I started after our Jack Russel terrier Molly went on to her reward. Well, not completely finished. Some photos were missing and I didn't link the posts to make them easier to read. 

Now, all these wrongs have been righted. It's been more than a decade since we bade farewell to our little stinker. If you'd like to read about her, you can find the first post here.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Tiny Mighty

Meggen, Terry and Dianne with a big bronze dragon on Huron Street.

Dianne Saxe explained her dilemma to the tall young property manager. If she waited until the writ dropped, she would have 30 days to reach 120,000 people, three-quarters of whom live in buildings just like the one we were standing in.

The property manager's dilemma was, until the writ dropped, it was his decision whether or not to let people canvass for political parties on the premises. He couldn't make that decision until the Board told him what to do.

This was his way of politely asking us to leave. Dianne explaining her dilemma was her way of politely saying we'd rather stay.

We left.

Our target poll this week was Chinatown ... which provides another way to appreciate the vastness and diversity of Dianne's riding. In three weeks we have travelled from Italy, to the University of Toronto, to China ... 

People we talk to wonder if voting for the Green Party will split the vote and let the Conservatives win again. Dianne reminds them that a Conservative hasn't won in their riding in living memory. She says she was once influential in Queen's Park as the province's last (as in there is one no longer) Environmental Commissioner. Return her to Queen's Park, she says, where she'll fight for a livable tomorrow.

As luck would have it, we found this sign on the fence by a schoolyard on D'Arcy Street. 

Terry and Dianne by Heydon Park Secondary School

No one, not even the Ontario Green Party, is too small to make a difference.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen