Paw Prints

You may have seen in my last post, that I'm confined to largely writing left-handed, in pencil at the moment (when I'm not typing on my trusty laptop) as my arthritis has flared up. Hence the arrival of some new pencils to play with has been most timely.

This week, I'm looking at the Nero's Notes Musgrave pencil, and the Blackwing 64.

As I'm sure all of you know by now, I write proper letters, on nice paper, to a number of people, and I have done for decades. Sometimes they are quick notes; sometimes they are longer missives. They are often just to exchange news. Occasionally, they are to force a stressed friend to sit down and concentrate on something else for ten minutes, rather than whatever is stressing them.

A new addition to Nero's is some splendid writing paper from Bomo. 

Playing with stationery is good fun for hands and eyes, but sometimes it's helpful to have something absorbing on the old wireless at the same time - and it rarely gets more engrossing than the astonishingly convoluted magical realist universe created by Julian Simpson. Julian's a television director too, and that's less interesting (obviously) but his stint on Spooks did rather helpfully introduce him to the splendiferous Nicola Walker and the positively ubiquitous Tim McInnerny. Both pop up with remarkable regularity in Simpson's radio dramas, which rightly win awards for creative use of sound and cover just about every sort...

"Laid paper"? Some of you might be wondering: what on earth is "Laid paper"? Luckily for you, I covered this a while back! Have a look at my post "Laid... or wove?" The Crown Mill writing paper is, as Scrib has also noted, laid paper. Which makes it excellent for graphite lovers, but not so much fun for fountain pen users. The very reason laid paper can be a pain (literally) to write on using a fountain pen is the very reason other pens (and pencils) work so well: it has a texture or 'toothiness' to it. As many of...