Spring: rain, wind, and flowers
Time for more random thoughts.
1. I love my family.
2. After not watching Leno for a few months, I have now managed to catch him two nights in a row. This is...good, I think.
3. April is going to fly by. This both excites and scares me.
4. I have a lot to learn about beekeeping. I've certainly learned a lot already, but I have a long way to go (the mites certainly aren't helping with anything). Luckily, I know of several people who can help me. Time to pester (more than usual, even).
5. Does anyone have any pressing questions about handbell ringing? Or handbell ringers? Don't ask why -- but just let me know if you have any. :)
6. Music rehearsal remains one of the most fun and theraputic activities that I do every week. I should start looking for a music group to join for the summer. Or maybe a few of us can start a handbell quartet...change ringing could be cool too. ;) Man, I miss drumline.
7. A random thought about my random thoughts: most of these are probably very boring to read. Sorry. :)
8. It's almost time for a whirlwind trip. Plans include: visiting a cool university, chatting about my studies, recovering from my week of presentations, attending my bro's jazz concert, catching up with some friends and friends of the family, eating Creamery ice cream at least once, and spending quality time with two crazy dogs and a bossy cat.
9. As I've mentioned before, I love PhD comics. I found this one today, and it made me laugh. Some of my friends may appreciate this one too. :)
posted by Katie @ 12:29 AM
10 Comments:
I don't know anything about handbell ringing, oddly enough. Are they all tuned to different notes? Do you just ring one, or do you have many that you choose from at just the proper moment? :)
I've got one: What's with the gloves?
Oh, no. You're going back to PSU and I'm going to miss it? *pout* Well, anyway, have a good trip.
I have to ask.. what's beekeeping like? I've always been kind of interested. I have a HUGE obsession with honey. hehehe. But no, bees just kind of fascinate me, and i've entertained the idea of possibly having a beehive of my own if i have a yard big enough. Is it easy? Worth it if you have only one? Ok with neighbors? :)
Tina,
Yes, each handbell corresponds to one note (key) on the piano. My group has 6 octaves of bells, which covers about 3/4 of the keys on a piano.
You can ring up to three bells in one hand (it's easiest and most common to stick with one or two), and so if you only have two hands (a good assumption), you can ring up to 6 bells at once.
However, usually what you do is just hold one or two bells in each hand, and you can set them down and pick up others if you need to. It's a lot of fun.
The music we read is like piano music -- you can see all of the notes at once. But you as an individual in the group are only responsible for a few particular notes (like the F, F#, and G above middle C, for example). So you sortof follow the music, wait for your notes to come along, and ring!
Matt,
Gloves, shmloves. :) Most handbell groups wear gloves for a few sortof practical reasons, but nothing actually requires you to do so with today's modern bells. The practice of wearing gloves originated because older handbells had leather handles, and so people wore gloves in order to prevent sweat from causing the handles to disintegrate over time.
Today, groups typically wear gloves for a few reasons:
1. It prevents sweat on your hands from touching the brass of the bell itself...the sweat causes the bell to not look as pretty. However, if you clean your bells fairly often (which you should be doing whether or not you wear gloves), this shouldn't be a huge concern.
2. It provides grip for picking up and holding onto the bells. The bell gloves I use right now are sortof like the gloves we had in marching band -- they have those little rubberish dots on the underside. Remember those? :)
3. It provides cushioning for hours of ringing. Seriously, it's much easier to develop blisters and sores while ringing if you're not wearing gloves. However, you sort of get used to it.
4. A lot of churches have kids ring bells. It's a good idea in general to teach kids to be careful with touching instruments and careful with their care. Even though I don't think that adult groups need to wear gloves, I think it's a very good habit for kids.
All that being said, I prefer to ring without gloves. My group in college never wore gloves, and you should've seen the responses we got from audience members during concerts. "Gasp! Where are your gloves!??" :)
Jen,
Oooh! Beekeeping is awesome, seriously. I mean, I do it as part of my research, but whenever I get a house with a backyard, I definitely plan on having one or two small colonies. Not for research; just for fun -- and for honey and for pollinating my vegetable and flower garden. And to show kids for fun and science. :)
Truly successful beekeeping is not too easy. However, keeping a hive or two as a hobby is pretty simple. The set-up is not too hard, and for the most part the bees maintain themselves. What makes things tricky is the recent surge in certain pests (mites and bacteria) that cause problems for the colony. While strong and healthy colonies can fight off these pests, they pay a cost in doing so -- and that cost is often that they don't make it through the winter.
That being said, there are ways to help ensure the health of your hives. I'm still learning those techniques. :) And if you are doing it as a hobby and don't mind having to purchase new bees once in awhile, it's no big deal.
Whether you have one or several hives, you shouldn't need to spend much time doing anything. A general suggestion in to look in the hives every two weeks or so. Your "inspection" serves multiple purposes:
1. You will, over time, learn to detect the symptoms of a hive with a disease.
2. You will, over time, be able to identify odd behaviors that indicate that something is wrong with the hive (like when the hive becomes queenless, which isn't good).
3. You will learn about bees and all their fascinating behaviors. This is the fun part!!
So yeah. There's a cost to the equipment, but that's a startup cost and once you've invested in that, it can be used for a long long time. And the cost of time is so minimal. But the benefits are so many (and so honey-licious).
Oh -- and the "okay with neighbors" part might be tricky. Some areas are starting to make laws about the keeping of bees in residential areas. People sue for anything and everything nowadays, and it's kindof scary. You'll probably want to check with your area (ask your local beekeeper's association -- they'll know for sure).
Awesome :)
Yeah, I'd definitely be doing it for a hobby. I plan on having lots of flowers, a vegetable garden, and possibly some fruit trees, so i figured it would be pretty beneficial to have a hive or two. Plus for the honey. Ok ok, maybe MOSTLY for the honey, but still. Hehehe. Well, this is much in the future too, but it's become a slight obsession. So once i get a house (waaaaay way off, i know. hehehe), i'll probably be picking your brain for more info. ;) If you don't mind, that is. Side question.. do you get stung a lot?
Hehe...yeah, I know what you mean about the future stuff. :)
And about getting stung: I only got stung once last summer, so I was happy. Especially since the summer before that I had gotten stung about 12 times. And of those 12 times, 2 of them were stings on the face. Let me tell you, getting stung on the face isn't fun! But I have HILARIOUS pictures because of it now. :) It might, MIGHT, be worth it for those pictures. :)
Oh, and...don't even ask. I'm not giving those pictures to anyone. :) Ever. :) My advisor keeps asking for them...
Okay, so I suppose I'd give the pics to him if he wouldn't let me graduate otherwise. But something tells me that that's a violation of some grad school policy...:)
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