Long length ringing

August 27, 2015 rlzack1959quarter pealLeave a comment

In the summer of 2015, Jane, Paul, and Randy decided that we wanted to try a longer length ring, and even perhaps ring a quarter peal. To this end, we started meeting once a week during the week, away from our normal Saturday practice.

The first thing to remember is that Randy and Paul are fairly new change ringers. Paul had rung for a year in a tower, and has rung tunes with handbells, but just joined our group in 2014. Randy started learning change ringing with handbells in March of 2013, and had only ever pulled a rope in a tower a few times, and never for more than 5 minutes. Jane was our experienced ringer, and so was the conductor.

We started by just randomly calling bobs and singles, and learning what that did to the order of the bells. After messing up a few times, we were able to ring a touch of 180 with little trouble. And as the summer progressed, we were able to ring longer and longer touches. Towards the end, we approached the 720 mark (the full extent of 6 bells), but couldn’t quite get past that.

Finally, on August 9, after our normal rehearsal with the group, we decided to give it another go. And after half an hour, we got back to rounds (720 changes), and continued on for another 540 changes, for a full quarter peal on 6 bells of 1260 changes. It took us just under 45 minutes. The Bell Board entry is here.

Needless to say, we were thrilled!

We are working on another long length with 8 bells. Again, Jane, Paul, and Randy are ringing, and are joined by Ange at times, and LeeAnn at times. In fact, on August 26, we rang a long length on 8 bells, of 560 changes, which was a touch of bob major. It won’t be long before we ring a quarter on 8. More about that when it happens.

Tower Tour

August 27, 2015 rlzack1959Leave a comment

In the spring of 2015, we decided to do a tower tour. Now, San Diego doesn’t have a lot of towers to tour. In fact, there are exactly none. What were we to do?

We decided to ring our bells in various locations in San Diego, and do it all in one day. There are a few options. The first suggestion was to just drive to a few places and ring. Another option was to take the Old Town Trolley Tour with our bells, and ring at some of the stops. In the end, we decided to drive to some of the Old Town Trolley Tour stops, and ring there.

So on Saturday, May 2, 2015, Jane, Sally, Ange, Paris, and Randy met at Jane’s house and drove downtown. Our first stop was the Harbor. We parked near the Maritime Museum, and rang a bit, walked south some, rang some more, and continued until we got to Tuna Harbor Park, near the Fish Market. At one point, Jane and Randy were walking faster than the others, and stopped to wait. But while waiting, we got out the low 4 bells, and started ringing Plain Hunt on 4. When the rest arrived, each took the next two higher bells, and joined in, one person at a time. So we rang Plain Hunt on 4, then 6, then 8, and finally 10. Very fun. We attempted to ring Plain Bob on 10, but there were too many distractions.

We jumped back in the car, and drove to Coronado. At Spreckel’s Park, there is a gazebo, and we decided it would be fun to ring under the dome. The sound there was exquisite! And there were many parents with small children at the park, who had a chance to hear what change ringing is all about.

We stopped for lunch at Leroy’s Kitchen and Lounge, and had a delightful meal. Some of us even decided to act like bell ringers and enjoy a pint of something local!

After lunch, we walked across the street and rang in front of a fountain. Note – ringing handbells in front of a fountain is not conducive to hearing the ringing. So after just a few minutes, we left.

We phoned LeeAnn, and told her we were on our way to Balboa Park, and to meet us there as planned. We wandered around the park and rang at a few locations, with 6 people now. Sadly, we had our Schulmerich bells, which is a set of 10, and so we could not ring with all 6 at once. At one point, we noticed that the San Diego Astronomy Club had their telescopes out, and were offering people a chance to look at the sun through a telescope (with the appropriate filters, of course!). Paris and Randy found that too good an opportunity to pass up, and so stopped and looked while the others continued to other locations in the park. And we found them again, and continued ringing, up until our finale at the Spreckel’s Organ Pavilion, which was quite stunning as well. There was even a small audience!

After Balboa Park, it was time to head home. We all had various plans for the evening, and needed to get back home.

In all, it was a very fun day of bell ringing, our very own San Diego Tower Tour.

Plain Bob Royal

August 23, 2015 rlzack1959plain bob, videoLeave a comment

As a handbell group in Southern California without a tower bell on striking distance, all bar one of our group has learned to ring changes from scratch. This video was taken after we had only been ringing Plain Bob Royal for 4 weeks or so and was one of the early times we had got all the way through. You’ll hear us call out the leads but we are now past that. So even though this was recorded at an early stage of learning, we are quite proud of our striking.

Plain Bob Major

August 22, 2015August 23, 2015 rlzack1959plain bob, videoLeave a comment

Ringing in Southern California has its good points and bad points. The bad point is that we are a gazillion miles away from any other change ringers. The good point is that we get to ring outside for 10 months of the year. This was the group learning Plain Bob Major in the summer of 2014.

Plain Hunt Maximus

August 18, 2015August 22, 2015 rlzack1959Plain Hunt, videoLeave a comment

In October of 2014, we had six ringers and twelve bells, and decided to record us ringing Plain Hunt on 12 bells.

Plain Hunt is a fairly simple method. Each bell just “hunts” from its starting location down to the front (or back), then out to the back (or front), and returns to its home position. When ringing a single bell, it is fairly straightforward. When each person rings two bells each, then everyone has a different piece of work.

Our new blog!

August 18, 2015 rlzack1959Leave a comment

Welcome to the website and blog for the Encinitas Handbell Change Ringers. We will blog about our activities as well as post links to Bell Board for our accomplishments, and to our videos on Youtube. If we ever have guests ring with us, we will be sure to mention that, as well as give a shout to your home tower.

Feel free to poke around. We’re still new to this website/blog thing, and so there is not a lot of content yet. Be patient! We will be bringing you the best of handbell change ringing from San Diego, right here.

Encinitas Handbell Change Ringers

We are a group of change ringers who use handbells.

Menu

Month: August 2015