By Alne & Arrow

When does spring, spring into life?
Sometime in March, I would normally anticipate.
This year, however, things are a little different
and our weather is unseasonably warm..

Saturday mornings sunshine tempted me outside with my coffee.
The sun was warm
The air less so.
I checked the temperature on my phone.
"Eleven degrees at 11 O'clock! Brrrr!"
I sipped my coffee
whilst observing the antics of the squirrels and birds,
before retreating back indoors,
satisfied that I have drunk my first 'al fresco' coffee of 2019.

Shortly afterwards we depart for an afternoon of ringing.
In an unusual sort of sandwich,
we pick up one passenger,
stop off at the parish church to pop sandwiches in the fridge,
before collecting our second passenger
and heading east.

We ventured across the county boundary into Warwickshire.
The village of Henley in Arden is not content with having one parish church, it has two!
Both now have a ring of bells.
The churches were originally twin parishes
and are located a mere 100 yards apart,
separated by the 'mighty' River Alne.

We began by ringing at St. John's on the High Street. On a sunny Saturday, there was a mixture of tourists and locals wandering about
soon to have their peaceful meandering disturbed by some heavy metal tintinnabulation.

Next we wandered down the lane at the side of St John's to the older Beaudesert church -
where three "hopelessly"unringable bells
have been augmented by bells
that were surplus to requirements elsewhere,
resulting in a delightful light six.

Inside the church was cool,
despite the warmth
provided by a large cast iron radiator,
that posed an ongoing threat
to the elbows of long-armed
or unwary ringers of the 2nd.
Each piece of ringing was proceeded by the warning
"Mind the radiator!"

A bench in the sunshine proved to be a popular spot,
where a sneaky picnic could be consumed,
or the wisdom of Jacqueline Wilson digested.

We left the band ringing the final piece of ringing and headed back to the ice cream shop,
for which Henley is renown.
Despite the fact it was only February, the queue stretched out the door,
but we didn't mind a short wait.
DH was delighted to discover that he had a choice between dairy-free vanilla
or a selection of sorbets. He opted for Cranberry.

Next stop was Studley parish church, on the banks of the Arrow.
It was good to see the ringing chamber crammed full of ringers from towers around south Worcestershire.

As we were hosting the tea at Ipsley, we made a sharp exit.
While we waited for DH to extract himself from the tower,
I chatted to the Ringing Master about the first two rings of bells,
"Great bells, both good choices" was his verdict
"...and great ice cream!" I added
"I didn't get any ice cream! I didn't think about it!' he confessed.
"Why else would you go to Henley...?" I replied with a smile
"I wondered why you were a bit late at arriving at Studley..."
DH appeared,  and we departed to put the kettle on at Ipsley,
located further up the Arrow.
It was a great day.
The weather was wonderful.
There was a good turnout.
Lots of learners came and had a ring on four very different sets of bells.
I successfully rang Cambridge Minor at Henley and Cambridge Major at Studley,
so I was well pleased, as I don't often get to ring these methods.

Afterwards, I reflected
"Wasn't it kind of them to all roll up to help celebrate DH's birthday, 
AND to bring so many varieties of cake. 
Pity he couldn't eat any of them! 
Still he did go prepared with his own selection of food - guaranteed to keep him irritation-free.
A day to remember!"