Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to take ink photos for the blog yesterday afternoon. Ominous rain clouds came in from the west and covered most of the sky. But then I looked to the east. And I found a (sort of) ink photo after all. J. Herbin Bleu Azur.
And this is roughly reason number 1,979 why I love Chicago: green bagels for St. Patrick’s Day. I love the melting pot.
Though, yeah, the green color looks slightly strange in a bagel. Only kids would actually eat those, probably. Or Shrek. Or the guy in charge of Lamy Safari color choices.
I was trying to find my yellow Line Friends Lamy Safari the other day — for the blog, of course. Instead I found a clown car of pen-related clutter — boxes and boxes of it — all on a tiny shelf. Which is not my only shelf of pen and ink things.
But I’ve learned my lesson, and I’ve turned over a new leaf. And that is called: ignorance is bliss. From now on, I’m not going to pay any attention to what’s on my shelves. Unless something happens to fall on me. At which time, I’ll shove that item back on the shelf and walk briskly into the other room. That’s called: just good common sense.
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January is the worst month in Chicago. February is almost as bad, but at least it’s shorter. But in terms of fountain pens and ink, this January was pretty darn good. Here are some highlights.
1. KWZ Inks. I’ve really been enjoying these. Such beautiful inks, with such nice behavior.
2. Mysterious New Pen. I bought a new pen. But as Plume says, it’s for the blog. I’m selfless like that.
3. Learning Slowly but Surely. By the end of the month, I had started writing “2016” as the date, nearly automatically. Oh yeah. Those gears are still turning.
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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.
January 23 is National Handwriting Day?!
What the what? Who knew, right?
Since I do like to write by hand, I’ll join in with good wishes.
I hear from a lot of people that they are embarrassed by their handwriting and that’s why they don’t write more. To be honest, sometimes I wish our pediatrician felt that way — he’s the best doctor ever, but I cannot decipher his scrawl. Pharmacists must take handwriting analysis classes.
And I have terrible handwriting myself. As you can see above. Sometimes I blame school. I had to take so many notes, so quickly, that my writing just became terrible. And it never improved. In fact, I have rotator cuff tendinitis, so it’s gotten worse over the years.
But you know what? I don’t get overly upset by having terrible handwriting. People have different talents, and good handwriting isn’t mine. I still write by hand.
Not writing because my handwriting isn’t very good wouldn’t make any more sense to me than not singing because I’m not a good singer. In fact, I’m not a good singer, but I love music. So I sing anyway.
I just figure it’s the same with anything: have fun. Join the party.
So, let’s all write something today by hand. It’s a red letter day. (Look at the photo. Groan at the bad pun.)
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to everyone. It is going to be another inky week here. I’ve started using two new-to-me KWZ inks, Maroon and Iron Gall Blue #2. Every time I use Maroon, which is a lot, I’m saying, “wow.”
I do think Dark Brown looks slightly more brown with that 1.5 mm stub up there.
I’m also hoping to do a post about my Montblanc Agatha Christie this week. A few people have asked, so sure. I’ll probably just say “wow” a lot. I think it’s my most excellent pen. I mean, of course it is: it has a snake clip.
Otherwise, it’s been like eleventy below zero here for a few days. So I’m saying “brrr” a lot, too.
December always flies by, but I can’t believe we’re at the very end. I actually didn’t spend much time with fountain pens this December, but it’s still been a good month. I hope you enjoyed it, too, and I wish you and yours the very best in the New Year.
Here are December fountain pen highlights for me.
1. Pelikan Stockholm and Berlin. Finding these was the best pen-related thing that happened all year.
2. Cool Nibs. My friend Dan Smith sent me a bunch of nibs that he’d ground, which I’ve been using all month. These have been such fun to use.
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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.
Today is Christmas Eve, and our family celebrates this day as much as the next.
So, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, today let me wish you the best of the season. I wish you love and joy, peace and goodwill. May those who are sad or dealing with loss or sorrow find comfort and warmth.
I’ll celebrate how lucky we are to have one more family Christmas dinner together, and fondly remember those who shared our past celebrations.
This is the last day of November. The Christmas tree is up and decorated. And we’ve only had four of the light bulbs fizzle in 24 hours, so there’s at least a 10 percent chance it will stay lit all season.
And we’ve already triggered our traditional winter visit to the auto body shop. Yesterday the teenager with the learner’s permit borked a right turn, ran over the curb and rammed into a sign post.
Luckily, that did stop the car. So it didn’t hit the two neighbors right there on the sidewalk. That’s a silver lining. And here’s another: we’ve mutually agreed that dad needs to take her in the future. Apparently I yelled “stop” too much.
Well, it’s obviously time to focus on the past, rather than the future. So here are my own fountain pen favorites for November.
1. Kaweco. I love those AL-Sports in raw aluminum and stonewashed.
2. Seitz-Kreuznach. Those inks are such a great deal and such high quality that if I were starting out today I’d snap up the blue, black, red and brown Seitz-Kreuznach inks and probably use them for half my writing.
3. Pelikan Brilliant Black. Sure, it’s not exciting, or new. But I used Pelikan Brilliant Black a lot during a hellish month of work this November. And I appreciate it. It’s an ink I can count on.
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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.
Fountain Pen Follies 