January proved to be a reasonably solid month in my Filofax. There were occasions when I considered leaving the binder at home because I just couldn’t be bothered to carry it with me. Then again, I had times when I took it along thinking it wouldn’t be needed, and it proved useful. That backs up the idea that you need to carry your diary/planner with you always – you can’t predict when you will want to refer to it. It’s the main reason I decided to move from A5 to Personal size this year – the sheer portability of the smaller footprint. I don’t, for example, do very much personal stuff during my workday in the office, but it’s been so helpful to be able to jot down when someone has a recommendation of a hairdresser you could try, or when you discover that you will have to work from home on a particular day. Part of me thinks those are the kind of things I would jot on a sticky note and bring home to write up, but I have a strong feeling that this would be a fussy solution.
The amount I write in a day varies enormously. Work days tend to be a bit quieter (I don’t use the Filofax for my work tasks), weekends have more errands to run. Yet there were only two days in January where I had no reason to write anything at all on the daily page, and I am comfortable with that. I would rather have room on the days when I do need it, than worry about blank space on other days.
Okay, so I will admit to one slight wobble during the month: I thought for a brief spell that the daily pages were too much. I missed my old A5 pages where I could have a quote and I worried that I was too focused on the short term since I wasn’t seeing whole weeks on one spread. I caved and bought the week-to-view diary pages. The minute I set pen to paper, I knew it was a mistake – inks which behaved perfectly on my cotton cream pages showed straight through the white of the standard diary pages. It’s not that there was bleeding or feathering, but the paper was too thin for my liking. By the time I might potentially have gone out to look for the cotton cream week-to-view, I was over the hump and back enjoying the daily layout.
I went on using the William Hannah notebook for longer writing sessions, jotting notes about various plans, and testing out pens and inks on the lovely paper.
There were a couple of changes to my pen and ink lineup as I went through January. The Waterman L’Essence du Bleu started off the month filled with Montblanc Midnight Blue ink, went through a second fill – this time with Graf von Faber-Castell Cobalt Blue – and through a third fill: Diamine Aurora Borealis. All three behaved well in the pen, with Aurora Borealis being particularly vibrant and fun. The Cross Beverly was under-used, though I did turn to it for note-writing. When I was halfway through the fill of Diamine Oxblood in my Lamy LX, I added a few drops of Lamy Ruby to brighten the ink up a little. This brings it closer to my comfort level and may well be the way I will use this ink going forward.
My currently inked pens list for February consists of:
Kaweco Collection Iguana Blue with Diamine Honey Burst – I wanted something bright, a pop of colour, but I refuse to play the pink or red game during February, so I went with my favourite honey colour. I chose the Kaweco because I was missing it.
Waterman Hemisphere L’Essence du Bleu with Herbin Cacao du Bresil – I’m enjoying playing the getting-to-know-you game with this latest Waterman, so this time I’ve inked it up with a greyed brown shade. Subtle and just a little moody, this ink is an all-time favourite and it was high time it came out into the sunlight for a while. I’ve been using this pen extensively for my journal entries and I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks of this colour ink in the Letts notebook.
Cross Bailey Light with Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun – Another subtle ink. I thought it would be fun to have this shade of grey with its decidedly blue tones to compare with Herbin’s brown shade with its decidedly grey tones. Compare and contrast. I may write an essay before the month is done! This will be a solid note-taking pen and ink.
Montblanc Slimline with Montblanc Midnight Blue – This pen isn’t going anywhere. Although, it actually goes everywhere. It’s the pen that lives with my Filofax and they are still the perfect partners. I suspect that will only change if my committment to the Filofax wanes. The Midnight Blue ink is perfect and I don’t feel inspired to change it out for anything else, unless I switch back to Montblanc Amethyst Purple for a while.
There is room to add another pen if I decide that the subtle shades in my two main pens need a little jollying-up before the month finishes. Then again, my experience in January suggests that I will be able to change up the ink in the L’Essence du Bleu when we’re halfway through the month which will give an opportunity to explore yet another ink with this pen.
Pam Alison Knits 
4 responses to “Feb 2024: What’s the plan, Pam?”
Thank you Pam for your blog and sharing your reflections on the past month and your pen line up for Feb. I’m sure our love for A5 never cools. We keep going back. I was inspired by your lovely neat writing and clean pages but above all by your Feb ‘front page’. So ive spent a pleasant hour this morning making a front title page for Jan and Feb sticking in a scrap picture for each month. Thank you for that.
Thanks for the lovely feedback and I’m so pleased to hear you took inspiration from the month’s ‘front page’. I buy a yearly horoscope book for my star sign and write up the main monthly points in my intro page, but the basic format would suit all sorts of different approaches. There’s a random extra bit of washi tape on my page this month because, having spent a whole workday writing the year as 2025 instead of 2024, I settled down in the evening and wrote “February 2022” very neatly in the journal!
It was good to read how you fared last month with your planner set-up and pen and ink combinations.
Your new Waterman seems happy with whatever ink you chose to feed it with.
I have only recently discovered the Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-shogun when someone brought a bottle along to a pen club meet, and gave me a fill. It took me a little while to get used to it but it is rather special and goes well in your Cross Bailey Light.
I must admit, of all the Iroshizuku inks, Fuyu-Syogun was the one that always intrigued me the most. It was probably just the translation of the name – Old Man Winter – but now I have a bottle I do like the colour. It’s a muted as I want to go, though, as any paler and it would stray into the barely-legible territory. I wrote a letter with it yesterday on blue writing paper, and was pleased to see it still managed to be readable.
I’m having such fun trying different inks in the L’Essence du Bleu Hemisphere. Herbin’s Cacao du Bresil looks particularly good on the ivory paper in the Letts journal.