After several weeks of really restricted work time, I’ve worked two solid mornings and parts of afternoons this week, and it feels really good. I’ve been slowly chipping away at this first print, a three block view of Henry in the Old Forest. I’m doing a series of modest sized tree prints, and Henry has worked his way into two out of the first three. If I keep having more energy and concentration I’ll get back to that second snow tree print as soon as I get a solid first proof of this one.

I’ve also been doing a small print of Lindisfarne Castle, where I went with my grandmother when I was 17. The Holy Island made an indelible impression on me, clearly, and I’ve returned to that image for the cover of the book of poetry I’m putting together for my dad. Nerd family that we are, he spent several decades writing his way through British and Irish history in various challenging rhyme schemes. Because that’s how he has fun. And they’re really delightful. Self publishing wasn’t much available in the 90’s, but these days it’s beautifully democratic to make a book, and I’ve got several under my belt, so my main summer project is to finish this one up. A friend of his did illustrations for it back in the 90’s, but I’m doing a print for the cover as well as typing in and formatting. It’s slow but satisfying work.

Finally I’ve been enjoying organizing my print shop lately, and I’ve got a few fonts that I haven’t even printed yet. This week, in a bid to remind myself that a selzer will give my taste buds just as much change and novelty as a snack if I’m not physically hungry, I printed a small sign on scrap ends of mat board. This font reminds me of the Paris metro lettering, even though it’s not an exact match. I’m a sucker for anything Art Nouveau. I have somewhere between one and five of each letter, so I can’t set a whole poem or anything, but it’s a nice chunky size and really fun for limited projects. Like Parsons it also has extra long, extra fancy ascenders and descenders (bs, ds, ls, ps, ys, etc.) as well as alternative versions of various capitals. I’m a sucker for those too. So this sign now sits on my kitchen window sill for the moment.