9.12.11 (Nine Bells)

Today’s date doesn’t look much like a special number but I know it is because Belle of the Carnival told me it is.  She might also have mentioned that it’s her birthday. 

In honour of her birthday, here are nine bells:

1

Belle and Sebastian are first because they take me right back to my childhood:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myEnMERmbJg

2

A beautiful Belle:

3

A not-so-beautiful Bell:

4

Old Japanese “Nine Bells” Wall Clock (nine bells, twelve hours; go figure):

5

Nine Christmas bells (of course).  Don’t mock; the same shop offers 24 hollow eyeballs.  Sometimes it’s better to be nice.

6

A job opportunity:

All Saints’ is unique in the world for it has a diatonic ring of nine bells hung for English change ringing, there are other churches with nine bells, but these do not form a “true” major scale…All Saints bell ringers need more people! 

What do you think, Belle?  It’s only a short plane ride from Canada to Basingstoke…

7

 I give you Belle Starr:

 

Maybe not – that’s how Hollywood saw her; in real life she looked like this:

8

You could move to the Nine Bells district of the City of Overlook, on the eastern slopes of the Stonehome Mountains, a hoary range of crumbling peaks as old as the world: 

“Nine Bells, Nine Hells, all the same to me.”

Nine Bells district takes its name for the nine temples
found in the heart of the district…this district draws
the hungry, the diseased, and the destitute to its
streets. …With rotting estates, old vineyards now
overrun by tents and wooden shacks, sagging
rowhouses, and communities of tents, Nine Bells
decays even while the rest of the city grows
strong…many of its people commit unspeakable
acts to survive. Drugs, prostitution, and
slavery can all be found here.

From Rodinia 

Umm, maybe not the best way to celebrate your birthday.

9

Finally, you could visit the past here in Manchester:

(Belle Vue Prison)

*

 

You Tube videos won’t embed on my blog at the moment, so here is a poem instead; provide the tune for yourself:

Jingle bells, birthday Belle, singled out today
Oh what fun it is to write in a rather hackneyed way*
Jingle bells, birthday Belle, singled out today
Oh what fun it is to write in a rather hackneyed way**

Dashing through this post
In a must-get-finished way
O’er the words we go
Laughing all the way***
Belles on birthdays sing
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and ring
Up Canada at night.****

Jingle bells, birthday Belle, singled out today
Oh what fun it is to write in a rather hackneyed way*****
Jingle bells, birthday Belle, singled out today
Oh what fun it is to write in a rather hackneyed way******

*Me, not you!
**Me, not you!
***I hope.
 ****Don’t worry; I won’t be waking you up in a stalkerish way.  Not unless I can reverse the charges.
*****Me, not you!
******Me, not you!

*

Happy birthday Belle!

Hope this was exciting enough for you!

 

Joke 260

What do angry mice send to each other at Christmas?

Cross mouse cards.