While most of the photos I took at the open gardens yesterday were shot using the XZ-1’s grainy black and white Art Mode, I had a bit of fun processing these few colour images using Picasa and Pixlr-o-matic, and was pleased with how they turned out.
Month: October 2012
Harrow Open Gardens 2012: worth a million statues
Today I had the pleasure of visiting four local gardens which were open to the public as a fundraiser for the Harrow Bush Nursing Centre, a health service provider which our remote community highly values, and which has recently been of great assistance to my family.
The grounds that I most enjoyed visiting was adorned by a number of statues of naked women, their placement in the English cottage garden a testament to the artistic flair of Rosebury’s owners, Jeff and Jenny Brow.
e. e. cummings may well have written that a pretty girl who is naked / is worth a million statues, but when no pretty naked girls are to be found, such a delightful statue as this ought not be overlooked.
Penguins: cooler than you and me in so many ways
I spent the afternoon with My Good Man at The Aquarium in Melbourne yesterday – here’s a hot tip: it’s cheaper if you book online. It was pretty good, except that it turned out to be children’s day, so our enjoyment of each exhibition was marred by squeals, sticky fingers, and what looked suspiciously like a human turd.
Street Photography: clicking around Flinders Street, Melbourne
Just Another South Australian Farm
Round the Farm: a study in circles
Weapons of Choice: choosing and using fountain pens and inks
About a year ago, I bought a vintage fountain pen, a Parker 51, for a friend who loves to write. When it arrived, I had a bit of fun cleaning it and trying it out with some ink to ensure it worked before presenting it to her. I liked it so much that I covetously wanted to keep it for myself – but I didn’t! Instead, I began researching fountain pens, and bought a few economy models online to try.
My first purchase, for around $5, was a “disposable” Platinum Preppy (above front), which came with a replaceable cartridge. One advantage of having a pen with a replaceable cartridge is that the cartridge can actually be carefully refilled with a dropper, which means you can use whatever ink colour you prefer. The nib is marked as “fine”, but being Japanese-made it is actually more like an extra fine. The clear plastic casing has a somewhat brittle feel, but I haven’t broken it yet. The lid, which snaps on, has an airtight seal, making this the most mess-free of my pens, and also the most willing to write immediately. The Preppy comes in a range of colours, and cartridge converters are also available, making refilling even simpler. Its appearance is unremarkable, therefore making it the least likely to be stolen from your desk at work!
My next purchase, after reading many reviews, was a white Lamy Safari (around $30), renowned for its butter-soft nib, which is marked as EF (extra fine), but being German-made is actually more like a fine! It has an attractive, modern casing in quality plastic with a three-sided molded section for a comfortable, natural finger grip, and a sturdy, paper-clip style stainless steel pocket clip. It came with a piston-style cartridge converter, which is easily filled by dipping the opening into your ink, then twisting the end section to draw in the ink. The nibs in the Safaris are replaceable. I like it a lot, and for a while it was my favourite; but I now find that the cap unwinds from the body, causing more leaks which have led to slight staining of the white casing.
My last acquisition was a marbled grey Noodler’s Nib Creaper demonstrator (transparent) pen, valued at around $15, from the helpful and knowledgeable team at Goulet Pens, which was included as a bonus with a large bottle of Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink. I really like this pen, although it smelt odd to begin with – a trait they are known for. It’s an “eyedropper pen”, which means it has a huge reservoir in the body, instead of a separate cartridge, and to refill it you merely unscrew the two halves of the body, and drop in more ink. I have found that I prefer the transparent pens for the practical reason that it’s easy to see how much ink you have left.
I mostly use the bulletproof* Lexington Gray ink in the Preppy and Nib Creaper pens, and a blend of Noodler’s La Reine Mauve and Lexington Gray inks, at a ratio of about 1:3, to create a purplish grey, in the Safari. I keep a small ink bottle (above left) for this purpose.
Researching and collecting fountain pens and inks became a bit of an obsession for a while, but I reined in my urge to buy everything I could, and have a useful collection for now. The act of writing about them here has reignited my interest, and I’d love to acquire a Noodler’s Ahab Flex pen, with a flexible nib. And of course, there are many more inks I’d like to try out, some of which come in exquisite bottles…
*Noodler’s use the term “bulletproof” to describe ink that is waterproof, bleach proof, lightfast, and has excellent archival qualities.
International Well-digger Truck
On a recent visit to a friend’s farm, I was charmed by the sight of this old International truck, outfitted for well-digging. It’s been a long time since it has been employed.
Comparing 6-pot Apples for Oranges
A friend of mine has an early ’70s GTR XU-1 T0rana, the first Torana to be produced for genuine performance on the track – most notably the popular endurance race known these days as “Bathurst”. I recently discovered it parked beside my early ’90s mini-beast, who looked a little overwhelmed by the Torana’s muscle and street-cool style. She may even have simpered a little.
Comparing them (6-pot apples for oranges, as it were), I got the song I Love It by Icona Pop stuck in a loop in my head:
I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone.
I crashed my car into the bridge. I watched, I let it burn.
I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs.
I crashed my car into the bridge.
I don’t care, I love it. I don’t care.
You’re on a different road, I’m in the milky way
You want me down on earth, but I am up in space
You’re so damn hard to please, we gotta kill this switch
You’re from the ’70s, but I’m a ’90s bitch.
Reed Organ: a brief study
When I was a little kid we had an old reed organ, the kind you operate by pumping the foot bellows to allow the keys to make sounds. It preceded the player piano we later acquired, and was where my interest in playing the keyboard started.
Recently I visited the home of an old friend, and was delighted to see that when their modern piano was moved to their daughter’s home, its place was filled by a very lovely reed organ, one far more ornate than the one I remembered from my childhood home.
precious ruthless captures 