Dear friends. It's time for another Tell Us About challenge. This month it's Favourite Things, set by Australian blogger Jill from Grownup Glamour.
I'm honing in on one of my many favourite things: my love of stationery. If you want to offend me, dear reader, you would offer me a Bic pen to write with, and lined paper to write on. At the very least I expect a Pentel, although my pen of choice uses ink. From a bottle.
The problem is, I have fewer uses for stationery nowadays.
When I was working, it was commonplace to have a "day book" in which you captured notes from meetings. It was even a legal requirement at one time that you kept them for a certain number of years. The standard issue was a ruled exercise book but I'd never accept one of those. No, I liked to buy notebooks with thick cream unlined pages, and a pretty cover. Failing that, a Moleskine, as long as it had plain paper.
This went on right until my last day at work, although most people were by now tapping out their notes during the meeting on a laptop. I always thought this was rude, particularly if you were a speaker, because they rarely looked up. And who knows, they were probably doing their online grocery order.
FOUNTAIN PENS
I've always loved writing with a fountain pen. At school I started with a Platignum pen , moving on to Sheaffer and then Parker. I preferred ink, always black, to cartridges.
I recently bought this beautiful handmade pen while at Bewdley Museum in Worcestershire, on the Land's End to John O'Groats cycling holiday.
French Polisher and Woodturner Eric Lyons has a delightful little shop at the museum. The pen is made from beech. Eric explained that the markings are the result of a fungus.
I also have a habit of buying postcards or notelets when I visit an art exhibition. Here are a few of my acquisitions. My mum and I used to send each other notelets quite often but not so much now. My writing is so terrible she has trouble reading it (as do I!).
I've tried using a daily journal and planner. I sourced one in pink, with my initials in rose gold, from Fraser and Parsley, but my habit of now recording my daily doings in a Samsung Note is much easier, so I stopped doing it. I transfer the file to my PC and use it for the monthly Sentence a Day blog post.
I still take a lot of pleasure, and time, in choosing birthday and anniversary cards, but I fear I'm one of the last dinosaurs still doing this. If I'm ever sent an e-card I don't open them because the risk of it being a virus is too great. The cost of postage is becoming too prohibitive for most people. It will soon be £1.50 to post a letter or card First Class. My mum used to send around 100 Christmas cards. Imagine!
When I was a kid I was forever writing to pen friends in distant lands or closer to home, in Swindon and Grimsby. This was the precursor to Facebook. It was an exciting day when an envelope landed on the mat with the distinctive "Air Mail" insignia. I wish I'd kept some of the letters.
The only thing I write by hand now is my gardening journal. I started it in 2005, the year we moved into our present house, and my first purchase was several roses from David Austin. They're still going strong. I document all my buys and each year set out my plans for the next 12 months. What will I move? What will I experiment with?
Sharing my posts with these fantastic sites.
Do you share my love of stationery, or has the digital world taken you over completely? Do tell in the comments. Scroll down below the link-up to find the comments box.
Now let's see how 8 other bloggers in 4 countries tackled Favourite Things. We have a change in the line-up this month. Lovely Sue Loncaric from the Australian blog Women Over 50 Living Well has decided to pause her blogging and podcast activities to focus on other things in her life. We wish Sue all the best.
We have been joined by UK book and gardening blogger Rosie Amber. Rosie is a regular in Wow on Wednesday so you may already have discovered her. She's very supportive of bloggers, encouraging many to guest post book reviews and gardening articles on her blog, which she promotes on X. Welcome Rosie.
Rosie tells us about her love for walking and recalls 5 different walks from her recent holiday in Cornwall. Read her post. https://rosieamber.wordpress.
Australian blogger Debbie from Deb's World has updated an earlier post summarising her favourite decades and how the latest one is going so far.
Yorkshire blogger Suzy Turner, who lives in Portugal, enjoys morning coffee and cuddles with her pets to travel adventures, cozy nights in, and creative pursuits like YouTube videos.
It didn't take US blogger Marsha from Marsha in the Middle long to narrow down her favorites! She's talking about anosmia as well as her favorite things. Don't know what anosmia is? Hmmm...guess you'll have to check out her blog to discover that as well as her favorite things! She's not giving any hints for that, either!
Australian blogger Jill from Grownup Glamour, who came up with this prompt, shares an eclectic mix of her favourite things including gardens and old roses, books of many genres and a few fashion bits and friendships.
JOIN US WITH YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS!
If you have a post ready on your Favourite Things, join the dedicated link-up. It's open until Sept 27 so you have time to write something.
Posts which are not on the topic of Favourite Things will be removed. If you're looking for the latest Wow on Wednesday link-up, it's in the previous post.
Thanks for sharing and hosting. This is a good idea, I will try to remember to do it. Might be in my phone though xx Jacqui x
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