Thanks Grandad

I know many people prefer to type than to write and I understand why. However, it feels as though the skill of writing with a pen or pencil is being lost in the days of electronic communication. 

I love writing, to feel of the movement of the hand as it creates the shapes of the letters and to watch the words emerge as the ink flows on to the paper.  I especially like writing with fountain pens. 

I got my first fountain pen when I was about 14 years old.  It was a burgundy Parker pen, with a dark green lid.  I loved it and spent hours practicing my handwriting with it.  I've still got that pen, but after all the years of use it doesn't work quite as it should.  For my birthday this year I got a new Parker pen - this one featured here in my blip.  It only arrived today so I am yet to try it out properly but I'm really excited to start using it.

As a child my grandad inspired me to take up calligraphy - something for which he was keen and talented.  He gave to me some of his pens, inks and instruction books.  I can clearly remember spending hours at my desk, practicing writing each letter - in capital and lower case - from the many different font types.  He'd kindly given me a photocopy sheet of the alphabet in each font so as to make it easy to practice.   I hope he is up there somewhere watching me with a smile as I start to use this pen.