An Extravagance

Corinthian Bells is what they are called and we have been planning on this extravagance for 6 years. it all started when we first moved here to New Castle. One of the very first Sundays after we had moved into his little house we awoke to the sounds of church bells calling people to service. The sound was wonderful and the blending of the bells from several churches made a comforting and soothing sound as the peals drifted off into silence, then sounds of a normal day in town would start.

I had at this point always lived too far from town to hear church bells and now they had become an integral part of our life. Then there were the wind chimes on the veranda of the big old house across the street. This little town almost always has a breeze and these chimes are of good quality and make a wonderful background counterpoint to birds, children, barking dogs and other town sounds.

 

Both Ralph and I voiced our like for the chimes on a regular basis. Then one day we stopped at our local Southern States. They had an amazing array of wind chimes. I made the mistake of gently pulling on the striker of one. It was very nice but higher pitched than I really like, Ralph tried one and we grinned, it was better, deeper and richer toned.

We tried a lot of them and I have to admit we probably annoyed the staff! There were three or four we really liked but we had no where to properly hang them and  did we really need wind chimes? This wind chime shopping has gone on almost every time we shop at this Southern States store. One day after finding an especially lovely chime we somehow knew this was going to be our big splurge. These really good chimes are horribly expensive.

We discussed cheaper chimes and that dilemma was solved when our new neighbors to the left of us got cheap chimes. They were and still are dreadful....the best thing we can say about them is they get tangled up and then don't ring anymore. This will last several weeks then the young couple will untangle them, mutter about how annoying it is they get tangled and go back in the house.

Well today, as we got chick starter, we talked to the lady who does the garden centre at the Southern Sates store [It is actually a Rockingham Co-op now] and we went chime shopping in earnest. She was actually placing an order for the store and she invited us to her office where we wandered through the chime selection. The funny thing was the site she had up had an amazing selection of chimes but you could  not hear them. I asked her if there was anyway we could here them as I had found a website or two that had the tones of chimes. She was more than happy to do that and we spent time listening to all the choices.
The 74" Corinthian Bells made the cut. They sound just like the church bells that we hear each Sunday morning and it is such soothing and  heartfelt sound. Our set will be in a color called "Patina", the color of copper left to the elements. One other thing we are so pleased by is these chimes are Made in the USA!

So there you have it, the story of an extravagance and a realistically not needed in anyway purchase for the farm. We are so pleased to have ordered this treat and Ralph is thinking about where to hang them.  We will have "our" church bells in the country and the wonderful tones will sooth our spirits as we make our new world in Cub Run.

PS: Ralph gets the keys to Cub Run today, I am turkey sitting but that is another story!

God Bless you all and remember to take time to listen and enjoy the simple sounds around you in these troubles times.