Yesterday was the Scottish Handbell Day, a high point in the calendar at 1 Albany Quadrant. It was the best one yet, and everyone went away happy. We had 18 people, and by lowering our sights a little instead of forcing everyone to ring on 12, we managed...

Last night I manged to have dinner before the handbell ringers turned up - which was a bit stunning.  Thursdays are one of those days where I am always on the way to somewhere else, coordinating several schedules, and let's not mention the 'your homework is due tomorrow' threats to...

Last year's experiment in running a handbell ringing club in our children's primary school was such a success that we were determined to run it another year.  My plan was to do another 4-week block introductory course, followed by a regular session with those who wanted to continue.  At that...

Following up on the previous post, here's a report on what we did yesterday evening. We're not going to give a blow-by-blow account of our sessions in general, but just this once it might be interesting to describe exactly what we did; maybe it will provoke some comments making comparisons...

For a while now we've had two regular but separate handbell bands at 1 Albany Quadrant: our original 8-bell band with Jonathan and Angela, and our more recent 6-bell band with Josy. We also practise with our son Thomas whenever we can.

We've been thinking about how to arrange...

Handbell ringers often choose compositions that are designed for handbells, which usually means that a particular pair of bells rings a limited range of positions. For example, 3-4 might be coursing all (or almost all) the time; or perhaps 5-6 might ring only the coursing and 5-6 positions, and never...

Sometimes you are really ready for a handbell session:  you have done your homework, you managed somehow to leave work on time, you feel fed, relaxed and focused.  When does that ever happen?

Certainly not last night: one of those slightly crazed evenings where nothing quite went to plan, and...

After our successful and unproblematic peal of 4-spliced with Julia, we had a sharp reminder that we really do have a lot of ground to cover to be as competent as we want to be.  Frankly, there is nothing like a bit of minor ringing to really bring the...

The whole of the ringing community has been coming to terms in various ways to the untimely death of Alison Regan.  As the ringing tributes come in, it is clear that she was one of those people who 'influenced a generation', even those who hardly knew her.

She is perhaps...

Some activities are much easier than others to start learning. On holiday in the Isles of Scilly with my sister and her family, the children tried various watersports. Kayaking and sailing are easy to get started on, because you sit in a stable boat and if you do absolutely nothing...