Ring, walk, tree, ring, ring, ring

I did an extreme amount of bell ringing this weekend. I went up to Cotton for some practice on Saturday morning at 9:30 (early!), since we were ringing for a wedding today and the bells are somewhat unusual. The ringing 'chamber' is actually a porch - it's enclosed on 3 sides but the 4th side is open to the elements. Apparently it can be fairly exciting if it's raining! We were lucky - the weather was sunny both days, but SUPER cold.

Then, this morning, I rang at Stowmarket for the regular Sunday morning ringing. I had lunch and did some Christmas present wrapping for all the stuff that's being sent tomorrow, and then it was back to Cotton for the wedding. The bells aren't used all that much (especially not in the winter!), and I thought they had a sort of steel-drum-y sound. They're also 'odd-struck', which I think means that if you try to ring just by ropesight you'll end up in the wrong place.  Anyway, tower #2 for the day.

After a reviving cup of tea in Old Newton, it was off to Great Finborough for an attempt at what would have been my third quarter peal. We missed it though - someone didn't hear a call in the middle and we got in a sufficient muddle and had to stop. We ended up starting again and ringing some other stuff, since we didn't have time to restart the quarter attempt. There will be others!

The boys and I went on a walk yesterday afternoon, after (mercifully) managing to do 95% of our Christmas shopping in one hit. WOOHOO!

Here's James, standing in...you guessed it...Water Lane!

I loved this picture of them, walking along. James is getting so big - he's grown out of his wellies and was wearing mine (with thick socks).

When we got back, we put up the Christmas tree (i.e. unmashed the branches from last year), decorated it, and put up the various other decorations, all to the rousing accompaniment of Sesame Street Christmas. C'mon, you didn't expect anything else, did you?