@traceydw.bsky.social
Archivist, local studies librarian, family historian, keen photographer, Nordic walker, trainee bell ringer, newbie drone pilot. Always learning.
Really enjoying helping out with #bellringing at St Peter’s #Kinver #heritage day, especially as my 4x great-grandfather (baptised there in 1749, married there 1770, died there in 1814) would have heard most of the same bells #FamilyHistory
28.06.2025 21:06 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Had the most amazing week in #Cornwall - the perfect weather helped me to capture the wonderful colours. Definitely my happy place 🌊❤️
18.05.2025 20:37 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A group of six people standing in a room with bell ropes dangling down. For privacy reasons most of the bellringers’ faces are obscured by bell emojis.
A church tower surrounded by trees, with the flag of St George on a flag pole on the top of the tower.
Still buzzing after ringing my first Quarter Peal for #VEDay80 #VE80 yesterday. Can’t quite believe it #BellRinging
09.05.2025 09:16 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Aerial view of a red sandstone church with a grey sandstone tower, surrounded by green fields and trees.
Close-up of wild garlic flowers.
A stile completely blocked by branches.
Close-up of a bacon sandwich on a paper plate against a backdrop of a green hedge and blue sky .
#UnconfinedWalks was a different route around the edge of Clent including a 12th-century church, wild garlic in a SSSI woodland, and a blocked stile (now reported) trying to come between me and a bacon sandwich. Did it succeed…? Reader, it did not!
03.05.2025 12:27 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Aerial view of a church with a spire surrounded by a circle of trees in a field
Bell ropes tied up in front of a church window through which the setting sun casts an orange glow over the silhouetted horizon
At sunset trees are silhouetted in the background against a golden sky. In the right foreground a silhouetted outstretched hand waits to catch a small drone
#BellRinging practice at a different church this evening. I allowed extra time for getting lost, which wasn’t needed but gave me the chance to have a quick fly of my new drone before ringing. Great fun.
11.04.2025 20:58 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Took advantage of the lovely weather to take out the drone and have my first go at editing. Lots to learn still, but it’s good fun
02.03.2025 22:06 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Two years today since I started #bellringing. I can now ring Grandsire Doubles inside for services and ropesight is getting better, though there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
26.01.2025 10:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Muddy glove-covered hand with someone’s legs in muddy trousers and walking boots in the foreground. In the background is a curved bay showing sea, beach and hill.
Grass in the foreground with a curved bay of blue sea and blue sky with white clouds above
The sun begins to set over a coastal scene, making the foreground land and rocky peninsula in the middle distance all dark, while the sky is blue with clouds edged in a golden light and a pool of gold on the water in the background
#UnconfinedWalks turned out to be muddier than I anticipated, thanks to a very slippery coastal path. View was worth it though!
22.01.2025 21:57 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Thank you! It’s still a bit scary sending the drone up and away 😬
05.01.2025 17:41 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Aerial photograph of a church with a little snow on the roof and the grounds
Managed a quick practice with my new drone before bell ringing this morning. Still a bit anxious about going too high and too far, as well as ensuring I’m flying safely and legally. Hopefully, the flying and the photography will improve over time 🤞
05.01.2025 17:30 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A memorable bellringing experience today at Pershore Abbey, with its legendary bellringing cage suspended in the lantern tower. “Not for the faint-hearted” they said. Now I know why - especially those steps 😱
24.11.2024 16:43 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Very much still learning!
17.11.2024 21:20 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Fascinating visit today to West Midlands Police Museum in Birmingham - in use as a lock-up 1891-2016. I had no idea that the toilet cisterns were on the outside of cells so that prisoners couldn’t harm themselves with the chain or flood the cell 😳
21.08.2024 19:15 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Cherry blossom looking lovely in Birmingham this afternoon
19.03.2024 19:19 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Close-up photograph of a black bird perched on a fence overlooking the sand and the sea
Quite pleased with this photo taken on my phone with maximum zoom. Apparently a jackdaw, according to the photos app
16.01.2024 21:03 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Photograph of a black metal sculpture depicting a soldier with head bowed and holding a rifle. A poppy is attached to a hedge behind
Photograph of a black metal sculpture depicting a uniformed man saluting. Other silhouette sculptures are in the background
Managed a very quick lunchtime #UnconfinedWalks to the local supermarket today and unexpectedly saw some soldier silhouettes en route #RemembranceDay
30.10.2023 13:44 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Photograph of bell ropes hanging from a central hook. In the background are boards on the wall bearing the names of past ringers and commemorative peals rung
Recording for posterity that I just about managed to ring Plain Hunt Doubles (on the 4th) this evening. Getting better at counting places, backed up with a bit of ringing by numbers as I still don’t have ropesight. Exciting to feel that it is starting to make sense at last 🔔
13.10.2023 21:59 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Cadet Tracey here! Excited to begin my online learning so that I can become a “Pastronaut” and collaborate on a community project next month to identify landscape archaeology
12.10.2023 18:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Close-up photograph showing a bright pink aster flower in the foreground, with a bee on the top of the flower. Rays of sunshine highlight the bee’s wings and the green leaves of plants in the background
Lovely to be able to have lunch in the garden in October and still have bees buzzing about in the sunshine. They seem to like the “Andenken an Alma Pötschke” New England aster
09.10.2023 11:46 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Photograph of an old document entitled “Belfry Rules” listing five rules including that ringers shall observe an orderly and quiet behaviour, and refrain from all light talking, excessive laughing, jesting or irreverence.
After almost 9 months of learning bell ringing, I spotted the Belfry Rules at practice tonight. With 5 of us newbies learning Plain Hunt, I fear the Tower Captain must now be on his way to the Incumbent to report us for excessive laughing, let alone light talking 😂
06.10.2023 20:14 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Close-up photo of an Apple Watch showing icons
I discovered today that my watch can ping my phone even when it’s on silent. I just wish I had discovered it before half of the people at the blood donor session had helped me look for the lost phone. Which turned out to be in a coat pocket I never use 🤦🏻♀️Not at all embarrassing, no not at all 🙄
03.10.2023 17:44 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Photograph of various items from the Buckaroo game suspended from a ceiling. Including a plastic horse, guitar, trunk, hat, blanket and bedroll
In that case, may I offer up this Buckaroo game including horse suspended from the ceiling of a Mad Hatter’s tea shop #JacobinDay #JacobinLates I’m not sure why my photos app search didn’t find it on the correct day. I had obviously forgotten that I banked the picture in April
01.10.2023 18:54 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
Photograph of a candelabra light fitting. Eight individual candles sit on candle holders surrounding a chain suspended from a ceiling. Dangling below are four gold coloured bell-shaped lamps each containing an electric bulb. Dappled light plays on the wall behind, which bears names in Gothic script.
Nice to be here - already seems to have a calmer and more pleasant feel than the other x-place. Here are some bell-shaped lights from the Bell Ringers’ Chapel at Lincoln Cathedral, which I was very taken with on a recent tour.
01.10.2023 12:37 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
