Peonies, Pens & Pantone Colors

It's Peony season, and our yard is filled with them. With no planning on our part they seem to have staggered their growth habits to give us an exceptionally long flowering period. The tree peonies started blooming weeks ago with flowers the size of my head, and the regular ones with smaller but still sizable blooms are going strong now. You've got to love a plant that demands so little fuss but gives so generously. My only complaint is the ants that invariably accompany them indoors, but it seems a small price to pay.

And the other joy in my life: my pens are here!
A few years ago I bought a bounty of inks (below). I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but they were on super sale and I couldn't resist. They dry too fast to be used by dipping a pen into the bottle, and not many pens these days allow you to fill them with your choice of ink. I thought a rapidograph might work, but didn't want to spend $25 for a pen if it didn't. Luckily it turned out that Davis had two as part of his dowry, so I was able to take one for a test drive. His collecting habits are so varied that it pays to ask him if he happens to have the most random things - the affirmative on the cheese press still cracks me up. Anyway, after discovering the joy of the rapidograph and seeing the great deals for new ones on eBay, I decided I neeeeeded to own several in various widths. I haven't had a chance to try them out, but I'm hoping to this weekend.