Sunday, June 29, 2008

Quill

Something about my recent writing retreat has changed how I see the early-evening light. I'm not sure what it is -- maybe that, while I was there, I usually took a good long walk or a run about an hour before sunset -- I find myself missing that, being able to step out the door of the inn and be surrounded by green.

Right now there's a small rabbit eating grass & clover in my next door neighbor's front yard. It's nice to have a little wildlife and a little green even here in town. Actually, there is quite a bit of green here -- it's one of the things I love about living here.

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Does anyone know how to make a quill pen? I might try to make one out of the turkey feather I found on my retreat. It would seem appropriate. (The 12-pack diet coke carton is there so you can see how enormous this feather is.)

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Obama's already running TV commercials here. It blows my mind to think that Indiana could conceivably become a swing state this year. Usually, candidates don't bother to campaign here because, duh, Indiana, red state. If Obama even has a chance of winning this state, I think he should start picking out his inauguration suit. This makes me so happy. I hope it's a trend and Jill Long Thompson gets elected governor here as well. Our current governor gives me the heebie-jeebies.

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In my job, I work a late shift every other Monday, from 6 to 9 pm on the reference desk. Usually I go in around 10 am, work until 3, then take a long dinner break (come home, feed the cats, do some reading or watch a little TV, sometimes run an errand) and go back in at 6. I really don't mind at all; I'm not a morning person and it's nice, every other Monday morning, to wake up when the alarm goes off and realize I can roll over and go back to sleep for a bit if I want to.

In fact, I'm coming up on the end of a seven-week stretch of not having to be at work at 8 am on Monday mornings. I had my late shift, then Memorial Day, then I was on vacation for two Mondays, then my usual late shift, then covering the other Monday-night person's shift while she was on vacation, then tomorrow my usual late shift again. That's pretty sweet.

Of course, when I started doing these split shifts, I had every intention of getting up and writing or at least reading for an hour or so in the morning, then being incredibly productive on my "dinner" break. Shyeah right.

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Bunny's still there. Guess s/he is a believer in the "slow food" movement. :)

Dusk now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow it is kind of a PITA.

Lyle Daggett said...

When I read this I got curious and Googled "how to make a quill pen," and found this.

I found it interesting that it recommends -- as an ideal tool for making a quill pen -- a pen knife. The page includes other interesting and useful advice.

Another webpage, here, gives instructions similar to the ones at the other link above, and includes illustrations.

Jessie Carty said...

I don't remember all the tips on it, but I did make a quill pen once with my grandfather when I was really young.

I recall it actually being pretty easy but messy to use :)

Enjoy!

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

Harvey is making these quills for some sumi work. He's using a pen knife. He went to the library and checked out a book called INK. Don't remember the author but it's a calligraphy/drawing book. If you want, I'll find it next time I'm there and email you the call#.

Radish King said...

You really need to take a look at gregory crewdson's photographs in his book Twilight. There are some here

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=twilight%20gregory%20crewdson&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Anne Haines said...

Thanks, all! Wow, it does sound like it's a lot of work. Maybe I should just duct-tape the feather to a proper pen and pretend. :)

Pamela, thanks! Actually the author/title is more helpful than the call#, which can differ from library to library. I'll check our Fine Arts Library to see if we have a book with that title in the catalog.

Rebecca, those are something! Especially this one:
www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/29134-large.jpg