One sunny autumnal day last week Sophie and I were walking along the beach. She started collecting seagull feathers, which promptly joined the bottle tops, leaves, pebbles and sweet wrappers in the bottom of my bag.
I mentioned that many years ago feathers were used to write with and were called quills. She didn’t believe me. So when we got home I unearthed an old bottle of ink. She then set to work, with wonderful results…
I haven’t used that bottle of ink in many, many years. I used to write a lot of letters to my dear Grandmother and used to take pride in my handwriting (years of typing have since been detrimental to my neat, flowing letters!).
The ink bottle brought back many memories. At school we were taught to write joined up and I felt so grown up when I mastered it. A teacher suggested I try writing with an italic ink pen and then I felt like a ‘real’ writer. Such romance, history and emotion. I think it’s time I dusted off my old pens and tried my hand at the old-fashioned stuff for a change.
Interesting link:
How to Cut Quills from Feathers
