It’s time for a new notebook to continue my morning journal routine and I’ve chosen an A5 lined book with a pretty cover from the Museums & Galleries collection. This is the same brand as my undated weekly planner which has impressed me in the three months I’ve been using it, so I felt reasonably confident in choosing my next journal from the range.

This cover is once again reproduced from a textile design in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. I enjoy the bright purples and splashes of fresh green in this motif.

Inside, the paper is a pleasant ivory shade with lovely 8mm line spacing, just how I like it. There is a certain amount of coating on the paper, which allows wetter fountain pens/inks to show some shading, whilst drier inks (such as the Kaweco Caramel Brown below) provide a crisp, fine line. Overall, inks dry in a decent amount of time so there’s no issue with turning pages to carry on writing and, so far, there has been no bleed-through and very little show-through. In this, I feel it is a little better than the pages in the planner on which the occasional speckle bleeds through to the back of the paper.

I enjoyed using the smaller Paperblanks book and moving back to full A5 sized pages feels like quite a leap. It’s good to be able to fit the horoscope for June 2023 onto the one page, though, instead of needing to use a full 2-page spread.

Like my undated planner, I bought this notebook on a trip to the stationery department of my local independent department store, Jarrolds of Norwich. Having ordered some non-stationery items online over the past couple of weeks, I’ve got to say it is such a relief to have access locally to good quality paper goods and fountain pens. I find the whole process of deliveries from online stores such a nuisance. You would think I’d enjoy getting packages delivered, but I get much more pleasure from wandering around a shop and looking at all the lovely items. I’m such a dinosaur!