Inks for the Autumn

It's definitely fall now - the last few weekends we've been driving around outside of Toronto, and it seems like the leaves are on fire. It sounds a bit morbid, but it must be such a slow and glorious death, to blossom into reds and oranges and yellows before falling to the ground. Fall is one of the only times of year for me where I almost always match my inks and pens to the colours of the season. I sometimes try to around Christmas, but often I get distracted by the busy-ness of the holidays, or spring, but I'm not a huge fan of the lighter or brighter pinks and purples and fresh greens that sometimes come with new growth. Fall, though, is when all of my favourite earthy pens and warm coloured inks come to shine. This season I have: Noodler's Rome Burning - TWSBI 580 AL-Orange Fine Noodler's Army Green - Franklin-Christoph Model 20 Fine J. Herbin Lie de the - Kaweco Sport Brown Medium Sailor Jentle Apricot (now discontinued!) - Platinum 3776 Celluloid Tortoiseshell Broad KWZ Maple Red (Scriptus 2015 Edition, also discontinued) - Pelikan M400 Brown Tortoiseshell Noodler's Rome Burning is a bit of a secret favourite ink of mine, although it's not terribly well-behaved in terms of feathering on cheaper papers, and I tend to write on a lot of copy paper for notes and invoices and things. I need all my pens to be multi-taskers, so it's not too often that I put this ink in a pen. When I do though, I remember how much I like it. It's a more yellow and lighter than Golden Brown, which has more of a warm and orange tone, but it fits fall leaves perfectly. Interestingly, it's also the ink that turns into a permanent purple if you spill water on it - I don't use this ink because of that trait, but it's something fun. Army Green is another old favourite of mine - in these pictures it has a bit of a dark green with a hint of almost teal to it, especially in the swab, which I didn't do a very good job of spreading around, but it's a true army green colour. Sailor Jentle Apricot is a vibrant and bright ink from the old line of Sailor inks - along with Sky High and Grenade and Epinard and Ultramarine. Sailor has re-released a line of inks that is coming to us soon, including a new bright orange ink that I can't wait to see - I've been trying to be a bit less precious about discontinued ink (the point is to use them, after all!), but I'm always glad for another opportunity for hoarding. There's a turquoise colour that I'm also especially looking forward to - I think these inks should be arriving in the next few weeks, but we don't have a confirmed timeline yet. KWZ Maple Red is last year's Scriptus Toronto Pen Show ink, and with the pen show come up on October 30th, the timing is great. I always forget how much I like this ink because I'm not usually a red ink person - this is a dark and rich red. Scriptus announced the 2016 Pen Show Ink, Northern Twilight, which is a sort of dark blue teal kind of ink. Philip, one of the show's organizers, occasionally pops into the shop on pen show business, and it's all I can do to stop myself from shamelessly pleading with him for an early bottle. I basically hold no sway anywhere in life, and it's always depressing to realize that once again.

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We've been embracing the fall weather by updating Caleb's wardrobe. He's been in his spring + summer clothes for what seems like forever, especially since some of his pant legs now ride up to his knees as he's crawling up the jungle gym.

Caleb always seems warmer than everyone else - I can feel a cloud of warmth radiating from him in his crib at night - but I think we're starting to reach the days where everyone needs a jacket or a vest.

This is his second and maybe his last summer of going anywhere with just a diaper on - it's this season of change and fresh starts and cool breezes and it's giving me the heebie jeebies to see Caleb growing up into a little boy.