this morning

#Inkvent Day 18: Laurel. A teal with extreme pink sheen. I keep thinking that one day I will grow tired of these, but not today.

sketched at a medieval drawing workshop tonight, and coloured it with fountain pen inks

Inkvent 2025 🎊 Day 1: Celestial Skies. Beautiful teal ink with golden shimmer and red sheen. It's so lovely, I wish this one was the final 30ml bottle. Yes, it reminds us of Jacques Herbin Émeraude de Chivor, and isn't that a nice one ✨ Unfiltered/uncorrected swatches; lighting varies.

December 1st 🕯️🎄

made myself ✨

Latvijas dzimšanas dienas pārgājiens Ogrē sestdien ♥️🇱🇻

With constant stress from work and the possible war, my brain is craving the comfort of shopping for cute things. That's a temporary fix at best, and at worst, it just adds financial and clutter anxiety. My antidote is to 'shop my stash' instead: 🧵 about all the 'hauls' I rediscover in my own home ~

Halloween dinner last night, before guests arrived

Turquoise Tuesday and #newpenday! My pre-order of the Pelikan M600 Art Collection Rudy Rother is in! And all those who said this pen is even more spectacular in person were not exaggerating. Swipe to see the pretty packaging, too (the vintage poster that inspired the pen) #fountainpen

Just a few glimpses of beautiful Edinburgh. Every corner tells a story.

You'd never guess this is a Monet. Painted in the 1860s, this moody seascape is from his early career, long before the famous water lilies. 📍 National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

This is London, 1906. Before the world was ready, André Derain painted with pure, wild colours. 📍Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow

The Glen Ogle Viaduct is often overshadowed by its more famous counterpart, but it is a spectacular structure in its own right. No trains run on it today, and it's a walkable route.

It seems there's a rule – if you come to Edinburgh, you have to post your photo of Dean Village, otherwise the trip doesn't count.

Edinburgh eats today: blueberry muffin and the famous epic Oink hog roast roll with haggis & apple sauce.

Falls of Pattack

Glasgow's secret: World-class Impressionism & Post-Impressionism paintings at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Such an unexpected treat!

Edinburgh eats today: 🫐 Blueberry muffin at the zoo. 🐟 Haddock supper with all the sauce from Salvatore's – a perfect local chippy. Eaten in The Meadows.

Into the black waters of Loch Ness.

A quiet lunch on the Caledonian Canal before setting sail on Loch Ness.

Glencoe

🥰

Good luck in the Highlands, and may you never touch a kelpie.

Expectations: all the walking in Scotland will be great for my waistline, haha Reality:

Living in Riga means there can be just a two-hour bridge between enjoying the forest and the opera, and I lived it perfectly yesterday. Even though the 2nd half of that bridge was a breathless race 😄 A perfect kind of tired.

wild mushrooms thing 🍄🍄‍🟫💚 worth the hunt, the cleaning, and even getting a little lost in an insanely beautiful forest swamp

so relieved it's not a fountain pen, otherwise I would have had to get it 🎃

For those of you with vintage fountain pens, any tips for a modern fountain pen user looking to make the leap?

#30inks30days Day 1 Ink: KWZ Smells Like Coffee Pen: Hongdian 8037 <F>

The #30inks30days challenge takes some effort to post so often, but I've got too many fountain pen inks to sit this one out in September. Who else is in?

My world of art just got a whole lot more current and animated. I've fallen in love with a bunch of pop culture characters, and discovered amazing kawaii opera-themed blind boxes.

Friday night plans

creamy blue cheese pen filled with butternut squash soup ink – I'm ready 🍂

Retro 51 Tornado & MET Blackthorn fountain pen

My cat sits at the computer for hours and only wants to play with fountain pens. Can't imagine where he picked that up 🙄

Guilty of having too many books, fountain pens, and inks. And don't even get me started on my medicine cabinet, which is full of things that *aren't used* 😄 Anyhow, now I plan to be guilty of having too many advent calendars as well.

I've always wanted to post 'what I ate in a day' 😄 It was a zero-waste day/found-ingredients feast – I used up my frozen vegetable package, all the Turkish yogurt, my last three eggs, the leftover rice, and even the sad dill. I still have frozen dumplings, chili, and capelin roe.

My take on a green curry – very spicy, with plenty of chillies, ginger, lemongrass, and mint. This is my kind of comfort food 💚

I got this fountain pen, and it writes beautifully. It comes with a #8 nib, and mine is in <M> size.

Contrasts Friday

No cheating, post the latest pic of your pet.

this 17th piece marks the end of the escapism thread, thank you ✨

I just framed and hung this the other night. I have had print for a while: California poppy field by LA artist (and fountain pen collector/user) Joey Feldman. I first met Joey at the 2016 SF Pen Show. Fabulous talent, boundless energy.

escapism level: *high* one like, one piece of art (not mine, sorry)

'The Hostile Powers' and 'Paradise Choir'. My phone photos + Google Arts & Culture links: * artsandculture.google.com/asset/beetho... * artsandculture.google.com/asset/beetho...

I've deleted my reply now, as I realized I don't actually know. I had read somewhere previously that the famously refused pens in a tray were Pilot Varsities. Were they?

Does the Majohn P140 fountain pen really have an ebonite feed?