Welcome to Morning Ink, where I share my daily fountain pen drawing and whatever thoughts (sometimes none, mostly reasonably short, occasionally long and very rambling) jump out and onto the screen. If you don’t want daily emails you can toggle them off by going to Manage subscription – just turn Morning Ink off, no need to fully unsubscribe!1
A new month. November comes from the Roman calendar, when it was actually the ninth month (before January and February were added).
But I think it sounds like it should mean ‘new’ not ‘ninth’. New embers. From the fires we will burn in this colder month.
And what fires shall we burn? What habits or regrets shall we toss into the fires of this penultimate month of the year? And what phoenix eggs shall we prepare to come to life in the new year?
Not sure where that came from. Perhaps that I am looking at the fireplace which has a fire ready to be lit. Perhaps that I always get feelings at the start of years, months, weeks. They act, for me, like a permission slip to start afresh in some way.
Except today I don’t especially feel like starting afresh. If I could find the thermometer I would probably see that I have a slightly elevated temperature. I don’t need it, really, to know what I should do today. Low fibre soup. White bread. Paracetamol. Lots of water. Rest.
Of course, I have work to do. So can’t fully rest. But I will rest around the work and I will probably be fine tomorrow, and definitely by Monday.
I did get the Florine Stettheimer book for my birthday. And am reading a little bit every day. Of course, I already flicked all the way through looking at the pictures! I absolutely adore her work (those colours!), but I am fascinated by her as a person, too.
I was listening to Normal Women this morning, and that probably inspired the Learning theme in today’s drawing. The drawing started with the cup. And then the notebook and pen. The notebook was blank at first and could have been a sketchbook, but I decided it was writing. And then I drew the bottle of flowers. And then I decided that it was a table for studying. And wrote ‘learn’ and then drew the book. And then I added the croissant and nuts (or they could be sweets, whichever you prefer) and the glass of water and the loose flowers on the table and the flower food. And then I drew the lines for the table. And finally the chair.
I do wonder if maybe one day I will video me drawing my Morning Ink. But I am not sure how easy that would be, as I am drawing with the sketchbook in my hands and turning it around a lot. I don’t think it would be the same if I were trying to keep the sketchbook still on a table underneath a camera.
But also the very act of recording makes it a different experience. Honestly, knowing I will be writing about it here a bit later probably affects it to an extent already. Though I feel the accountability benefit outweighs any concerns I have there.
Maybe one day.
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