Category: Ponderings

I have a bird-waterer outside, and sometimes sprinkle birdseed on the walk out the front window so the wild house finches and house sparrows can eat without squabbling over a feeder (and yes, to entertain my cats, Klaw and Smoke).

For weeks, a particular female finch came to my waterer. She sipped, then sat with her tail-feathers in the water. At first, I thought she'd found her own little water-park in which to endure our record heat. But her feathers were a little rough. I thought perhaps she fluffed them, or maybe she's sick or just old. She always stayed longer than I was willing to watch.

This morning I went out to blow the seed off the walk before visitors come after church. Just after starting, I saw a bird hunkered down, not flying away, so I turned off the blower and crouched near her. It was the little female from my waterer. Clearly she was not well if she wasn't flying.

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Read more: His Eye Is on the Finch

Category: Fountain Pen Related

< back to Part 8: The Ice Fields Adventure

Part 9: Return of the Snek

400 Pennonia Orgona (Lilac)
“What’s wrong, Little Buddy? Weeks since we left the Ice Fields and you’ve hardly said a thing.” Essri glanced at the portal stones. Professor Eenness would arrive any moment. “I’m afraid to go home,” Essri said. I’m sure your mother will be happy to see you, Vika said. “They’ll be impressed by your adventures,” Quin added. “How many of them have learned to read and write?” Makhabesh asked. “That’th not a valuable thkill for thneks. Thtorytelling and thinging—” Just then, the Professor appeared at the center of the portal stones. “I have a confethion,” Essri said before fear could stop him.

401 Pennonia Balaton-kék (Lake Balaton)
Professor Eenness glanced at Essri, then the others. “Sorry, preparing for classes took longer than expected. Good to see you all again.” She moved closer to Essri, who held tightly to Vika. “I never talked to the elderth. I jutht repeated a rumor.” Professor Eenness laughed. “Is that your confession?” Essri nodded. “That’s nothing to worry about. If all sneks have magic, like you said, then there’s a good chance your rumor is true. And the pursuit of knowledge is always worthy.” Essri let out his breath. “I thought you’d be mad I wathted your time.”

...to be continued, every Tuesday.

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Category: Fountain Pen Related

Background

For some bizarre reason, many fountain pen ink reviewers write pangrams as sample text.  Pangrams are useful for learning to type, but they're somewhat absurd for demonstrating fountain pen writing - it's not as if the fountain pen will write differently depending on the letter of the alphabet.  Anywho, it's a common practice.

So, when I started doing ink reviews, I decided to have fun with these pangrams.  One of these pangrams is "The five boxing wizards jump quickly."  Eventually, this morphed into stories about "the fifth wizard", who was given a name by the user "yazeh" on the Fountain Pen Network.

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Read more: The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh: Introduction