• coffee life,  coffee shops,  fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  writing/reading

    Something New

    It is bitter cold this morning. My weather app said it was 3 degrees and my car’s dashboard said 3 degrees when I left for the coffee shop at 7:02 am. Two hours later it says zero degrees. It’s going the wrong way. We are looking at 2-3 days of this cold. I’m home and in for the rest of the day!!! Okay, enough about the cold and on to something new.

    This something new is a new Pelikan M205 Apatite Special Edition Demonstrator fountain pen. This past year Pelikan announced the Edelstein Apatite ink for 2022. Since I’ve been pleased with the seven Pelikan pens I already have, I didn’t even know this new ink or pen had come out until a week ago. After all, I can only write with one pen at a time. 😳 Needless to say, I fell in love with this color immediately. The pen is the newest in a series of eight demonstrator pens they have come out with since 2015. I only have one other demonstrator, the Smoky Quartz, which came out in 2017. All my other M200x pens are a marble swirl. Pelikan calls the Apatite color a Turquoise-Blue and is part of the M205 series which has the silver trim rather than gold. It is also a part of their gemstone inspired models that have been a popular mainstay of the company’s annual line-up. Apatite is a phosphate mineral which was first discovered in 1786 by the German geologist A.G. Werner. As a demonstrator pen you are able to see the internal piston and ink which I like. 👍 Being a special edition the price was higher than I wanted but…. So far I like the looks of the pen, the nib (medium) writes wonderfully and the ink shades well while pleasing to my eyes. So, my task now is to find all the words hidden within this pen by putting pen to paper in my journals. Enough gibberish from me. Stay warm and enjoy your day!!

  • coffee life,  coffee shops,  Food,  fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  writing/reading

    Spiritual Adventure

    I read a statement by Ilia Delio that says, “We are not called to maintain the existing order but to engage disorder as it lingers on the edge of new order.” Somehow that resonates with me. Seems nature is that way. Instead of accepting the chaos that is a part of my life, I want and try to keep things in order. Which doesn’t happen. What many consider chaos in nature is really the change, growth, transformation, metamorphosis, where something new is arriving. At the present I’m living with a certain level of anxiety, uncertainty, and doing my best to embrace faith, trust, hope, acceptance and even surrender. Let’s call it living this spiritual adventure.

    It has been overcast all day. The eclair in the above image is called an almond apricot eclair. I’ve never had one before today. It has an almond cream filling with apricot preserves over the top. Not as rich as I expected but had that sweetness that excited my taste buds. I will probably need to collect more data for my final analysis. Hope you had a good weekend! Stay warm!

  • Food,  gratitude,  writing/reading

    Grateful for…

    This mornings avocado toast at Mugs

    … the breath of life, family, friends, sobriety, journaling, photography, nature, coffee shops, solitude, quiet, prayer, meditation, books, serenity, courage, an open mind, willingness, avocado toast, chocolate and …

    mws

    I would like to invite all who read this post to add to this short list above those things which you are grateful for. You do not need to add them in the comments necessarily but maybe find a piece of paper and write them down as you go through the day. Sunshine and blue skies here. Happy Monday!

  • fountain pens,  haiku,  journal,  writing/reading

    My Friends Today

    pen teeming with words
    brings forth this simple haiku
    my friends for today

    mws

    It is another cold and overcast day. The wind has picked up which adds to the cold. I have no desire to be outside but want to stay curled up in my chair, wrapped in my blanket, reading and journaling with my companions. My FPOTD1 Fountain Pen of the Day is a Brown-marbled Pelikan M200 filled with Pelikan Smoky Quartz ink (and words). Life is good! Stay warm!

  • fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  quotes,  writing/reading

    The wind and cold

    “We don’t change as we get older – we just get to be more of what we’ve always been.”

    Joan D. Chittister

    The 2-4 inches of snow I expected to wake up to did not materialize. Nary a snowflake. But, we do have the wind and cold. I understand that they do have blizzard conditions on the eastern plains. I am inside listening to the wind and feeling the deep cold. I met some high school classmates for lunch today. Sadly I find two more classmates have died in the past month. Have slippers on and I’m in for the night. Hope you are staying warm and dry.

  • clouds,  gratitude,  lake,  landscape,  reflections,  sunsets,  writing/reading

    Four years ago today

    Sunset over Rigden Reservoir

    … I had my heart surgery, where they replaced my aortic valve. So, I thought I’d share my gratitude list with you today as it follows the theme of my last posting: 

    • Thankful for a healthy heart and it’s as full as it is 
    • Thankful for time with family and friends
    • Thankful for the opportunity to enjoy the things that have become such a gift in my life such as time with nature, photography, blogging, conversations with family and friends
    • Thankful for my prayer and meditation times
    • Thankful for my journals, fountain pens and the words I uncover with them
    • Thankful I can experience and enjoy each new sunrise and sunset
    • Thankful for another day to venture into a coffee shop to visit my favorite baristas
    • Thankful for the chance to read poetry, which I’d never done before
    • Thankful for the chance to try my hand at poetry, haiku
    • Thankful for the chance to create more of my photo books to share my photography and my words
    • Thankful for my home and the remodeling this past year
    • Thankful for blueberries in my Irish Oats 😂
    • Thankful for DQ Blizzards 😂
    • Thankful for my camera upgrade 2 years ago and a lust for the next upgrade 😂
    • Thankful that what I have is enough and in all honesty do not need anything more than what is already in my life
    • Thankful that there are still those who embrace love, compassion, serenity, joy, hope, peace and …. ❤️