Yesterday was a day of meanderings. Wittering around inside my head was that mind’s intrusion technique of:
‘You haven’t thought about it yet…..but I’m about to take you there!’
Mucking about with my fountain pens, I decided that I hadn’t a Parker of any use anymore. My wife bought me a beautiful Parker 95 in the late 1980s which developed a split by the nib in the ‘section’ part. This ultimately meant an ink leaking into the inside pocket experience. My dark brown cord jacket, that developed a beautiful faded ‘it’s lived a life’ patina, adopted an extra unwanted patina of darker nature! A naughty impish grinning stain. The cream ticking lining now has a blue map of an unknown country attached.
Parker! The Parker Duofold has always been a lusted after favourite. And I proffered an offer of £25 for a vintage Dark Green ‘N’ 14 carat gold nibbed AF button filler. About 13 cm long I believe. Looks like a hybrid though. Black barrel. Green cap and button filler cover at barrel base. Quirky! Lovely if so. Auction status starting at £18 or Make an Offer. A beautiful rendition of a Duofold. Hunky. Chunky. The offer? £25. I thought the seller would laugh! But….It was accepted! Don’t mind telling you that I Dad danced and made a triple ‘Whoop de Whoop de Whoop’ to the ‘Where’s your Momma Gone’ part of the tune of ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ by Middle of the Road. Yes. I was that happy!
I also bit the bullet and took the 1930s Swan Marie Todd fountain pen apart. Fed up of ink lasting 1 and a half minutes after filling and then spilling out and blotting the paper with ink blots. That’s a lot of blots that ruin the ambience of a beautiful William Blake or heart felt poem written down landscape. Also. I didn’t want another jacket ruined. (See final photograph below). I had one solitary ‘hope it fits’ ink sac, some shellac in a bottle, bravado found and pulled up from a butterfly stomach and crossed fingers. And toes. Smooth as smooth job done in 15 minutes. The Gods had smiled on the wonderful Swan. Filling up and writing down with Sheaffer Green ink in the Swan produced thoughts that simply tumbled out onto the paper.
Please tap on individual images to enlarge.
A written down ‘Can you fall in love with an inanimate object?’ question (about the Swan new found beautiful performance) led to meanderings again. I thought ballet. Swan Lake. Playing the Tchaikovsky tune from the ballet, on a trumpet, in front of a school audience and producing notes that made me more embarrassed than if I’d have stood there in my underpants! Jeremy Gill, who was an expert trumpet player, was in duet with me. He actually showed me an awful lot of compassion after the event. Stout fellow. That act stayed with me forever. ‘I should be like that!’ I thought. The ‘Can you…..?’ questions became an idea. A blog theme maybe? ‘Can you imagine hugging someone for a full minute? Can you?’ That last ‘Can you?’ response? It gives a ‘Really! Are you sure.’ element and should be included as a regular end of question ‘seal’ ideal. ‘Can you write a full story in a single 1 inch white square? Can you?’ My daughter got many people to draw something in a single white square, then collected them all back for an art exhibition.
’Can you whisper 3 words that could change everything? Can you?’
Thoughts of blog themes actually do come from these meandering pen scribbles. And doodles. As a writer of written down individual lettering style, I am my own worst critic. The culmination of letters into words I frown at. However. As a writer of the actual collective words I freely admit that they often put a smile on my face at the realisation, upon reading them back, that there is often inanity in my head. So what! A world can exist and go places in headspace where it can’t go in real life. It’s like you’re sitting in a theatre and watching yourself perform craziness on a stage in front of your eyes. Separate and allowed. You can bring the curtain down anytime you believe the performance comes to a close. You’ve written a song that can be played and performed whenever you want. It doesn’t have to run as long as ‘The Mousetrap’. But it can be pulled out of the hat like a game of charades at Christmas time.
Sometimes in the calm of a beautiful window of ‘who knows who gave it to you, but it was freely given, so thank you’ time? You can chuckle at the word chuckle.
Gray Summers 
I love the green ink. I’m enjoying refamiliarising myself with my fountain pens, and I’ve discovered the provenance of the silver one I asked you about and I’m hoping I’ve finally tracked down the appropriate ink cartridges for it … they arrive tomorrow courtesy of Amazon.
I’m also quietly reassured by your meanderings, and that I should have more confidence in my own … as you say, they’re part of our self-expression and give us the freedom to explore thoughts, concepts and ideas. I even went back to bed for half an hour this morning with a question for my brain to mull over – which will now likely be a post later today 🙃
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It is heartening to read your progress in these new found explorations. Fountain pen enthusiasts here on WordPress are fantastic to follow. Fountain pen owners are rather like VeeDub Bus owners. Chilled out and simply affected positively by the act of using them for therapy. You should find that one out really quickly. Green? My favourite colour. You can find ink and paper that change the colours enormously. Don’t get disheartened if you buy expensive ink and then the colour result looks bad. Maybe on a cream background of Basildon Bond it is light and washed out! Try a Khadi hand made cotton paper from India and it becomes vibrant. The colours you love in general are probably the ones to make you feel relaxed as you write. It’s great that you can find confidence and ideas from your inner thoughts. Not anxiety. Meandering is a simple pastime. Positive meandering is a Godsend. In chaos it brings calm. Good luck with your post later on. Be good to read it. I haven’t caught up yet with looking at ‘Reader’ for the latest blogs from the people I follow. So will check out later today. Started thinking about writing a blog about ‘Fictional books…..about books’. I started collecting them a few years back. Inkheart, The Dumas Club, The Book Thief, The Shadow of the Wind, the Book Shop, etc. There are dozens upon dozens of them. I have about 20 and am going to look at finding more now. All the best.
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I loved The Book Thief and The Shadow of the Wind. I’ve boxes upon boxes of books, not to mention the ebooks I have. I need to read more … and not just textbooks lol
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I can emphasise regarding text books. Now, the normal books can be read again. On retirement it has provided that opportunity. When I watched The Ninth Gate I bought The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Then The Shadow of the Wind. Two powerhouse reading experiences. Watching Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy in The Bookshop film sealed the deal of Fictional books about books fascination. There is something heart warming about the subject of books providing fascinating stories. The Never Ending Story was my first theme read way back when it first came out. Cheers for the reply Brenda.
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Both books are wonderful
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The Book Thief and The Shadow of the Wind
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They certainly are. Have read a few books about books as the central theme. Beginning to look at others too. There are loads out there. They’d make a good blog subject. If you know of others that are in the same theme it would be good to hear of them. Cheers Danny.
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I’ll bear that in mind about the inks interacting with different papers
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You will also find different GSM (grams per square metre) papers produce a style that gives you your own unique presentation style. I love to get a slight resistance with hand made paper. Heavier paper slows the writing down. You concentrate more. Lighter paper? I develop a scrawl. Ideal for lecture note taking. But rubbish for therapy.
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I dont think students really know how to take notes now. They come into the classroom and get out the laptops
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When I supported a Deaf students at further and higher education levels on various courses I had to adopt note taking, lip speaking and British Sign Language. Training from stage 1 to 3 and ongoing to specific ze duration support was 5 years. My difficulty note taking was deciding inclusions for the student. Levels of deafness from hard of hearing to proud Deafness was the determining factor of communication choice. It was quite stressful at times knowing that you could let them down. When a subject is not of your comfort zone, then understanding was difficult too. Art! The flowery lecture speak! Using sign language was a nightmare. I did an interpreting session in a library once for a visiting European poet. His poems were translated into English and I further translated in the best way I could into Sign Language. Trust me…..certain poetry isn’t best suited for translating into sign sometimes. This was 30 plus years ago now though. Laptops may be an easier recordable visual tool for students with hearing loss now. Able to play back their interpreters for review purposes. Cheers.
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That opens up a whole new minefield as lectures etc cannot be recorded without permission of the lecturer and the rest of the class – issues of data protection etc clashing with equality and inclusion
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That shows how far out of the educational loop I am. It’s obvious now you have stated it. Data protection is an extremely delicate tool and in nursing was adhered to strictly. In colleges and universities I used to assist in video recording the student themselves from time to time when presenting their own work in their recognised first language. That being British Sign Language. The voice over from the communication support worker was then the translation to support the students course submission. It was a very intense training programme I seem to remember and a vital requirement in training and support consistency to be only a communicator. Always the students’ own work and yourself as only being the bridge between the lecturer and student. That is why it was such a stressful role. I remember lecturers asking if I had voiced over correctly. Why? Because British Sign Language had it’s own grammatical rules. It looked like it didn’t match the verbal inclusion. But it does. Imagine showing the intensity of rain. A gentle downpour or a storm/deluge. The face purports how heavy or light the rain is through facial expression. The hands’ directions show how it’s coming at you. A window? Route sign and then open it or close it. Opened to left or right? Positional special use. Facial expression for emotion/mood intensity from a route sign, time lines, special placement, context, directional verbs, etc. Concepts based on presenting visual processes not aural. Handouts were translation exercises too. To be honest, I don’t miss it at that level at all. So nice to be away from the supporting nurse and communicator roles over the 30 plus years and to be now back where it is glorious. That is The Arts. Thank you for your insights Brenda.
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My pleasure Gray 😁
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