The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword...

...or so said Edward Bullwer-Lytton the English author in his 1939 play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy*

But in a world bulging with Bic disposables, and stationary superbarns selling shelves and shelves of different pens, markers and pencils, I had to stop and ask - do we really need all these writing implements or would just one do? And which one, I wondered, was going to make the least impact on the planet.

Behold the humble pencil. Wood. Graphite. Clay. And the paint... My research, which as usual consists of a meander through the wonderful Wikipedia, has informed me that the pencil - pretty much as we know it today - was invented by an Italian couple. Tired of scrubbing graphite from their fingers every evening, they decided to encase the graphite rod in a stick of juniper wood. This was slightly refined when the stick was split lengthways and the rod of graphite placed in a channel and the top half of the stick was then glued on top.  This is pretty much how a pencil is made today.  Graphite is a naturally occurring element. Apparently there is only one source of pure graphite, in England - which during the various Napoleonic wars became a problem for Europe so a bright young officer in Bonaparte's ranks decided to mix powdered graphite with clay and bake it in a kiln.  This method is still used today and the ratio of graphite to clay determines the 'hardness' of the lead.

What I love about the pencil, is that once it is finished, there isn't much left of it.  The shavings have gone into the compost and the rest of it can as well.  Graphite and clay are both occur naturally and wood breaks down as well.  I do take issue with the paint on the outside but these days it's not hard to find plain wood pencils.

For the children I get Lyra wooden colour pencils - they hail from Austria or Germany so the air miles are not great (or too great depending how you look at it ;-) and Stockmar (also from Europe) beeswax block crayons.  Textas/markers are illegal in our house and I ask that they not be given as gifts. It also won't surprise you that we don't use acrylic paints!

So, for everyday use and for writing, I've embraced the pencil and I keep a small stable of fine coloured markers for writing cards (birthday etc) - trips to Stationary Heaven are few and far between and sadly not as much fun, but I've discovered some gorgeous new shops and now have a fine collection of wooden (no paint) pencils going!

Some famous and dedicated pencil users:
John Steinbeck, Thomas Edison and Vladimir Nabokov.

Happy scribbling!

*Here is the full quote from the play:
True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
States can be saved without it!

And Now, A Word From The Tooth Fairy.

Teeth are a hot topic in our house at the moment.  Bubble has reached the age where her teeth are falling out and there has been quite a lot of traffic with the tooth fairy.  She brings beads rather than cold hard cash, and when all the teeth are out, we can string them into a necklace - the beads, not the teeth!

There has also been a lot of discussion about dental care and teeth brushing.  Like all good mothers I have been encouraging regualar brushing - however, children, being children, tend to be a bit random, and I've discovered toothbrushes hiding in some, shall we say, 'less than hygenic' places.  So the turnover of plastic toothbrushes has been quite high. Which had me thinking ... is there an alternative to the plastic toothbrush?

A quick search on the net (remind me, what did we do before the internet??) turned up these:

http://www.environmentaltoothbrush.com.au

Bamboo toothbrushes!  Admittedly the feeling of the bamboo takes a little getting used to, however the end result is the same - gleaming pearly whites!  When the brush has done its dash, off to the compost it goes!

Message in a bottle ...

Brrrrr. Unless you've just blown in from Siberia, you'll have noticed it's been a bit chilly here in Sydney. A couple of nights ago I spent a good half an hour searching for my trusty hot water bottle. When I finally found my beloved bottle, I discovered she had succumed to age and her rubber had rotted!  In a panic I put in an emergency request for a new one which was delivered by The Good Husband when he returned from work. As I lay there waiting with my ice-block feet and icicle knees, I wondered if there was indeed such a thing as a recycleable bottle to warm the body ...

All Hung Up.

Eco-friendly coat hangers? Yes ... but will they survive the shirt wash on a wet day?
While I don't use dry cleaners, I still seem to have an unruly calamity of coathangers in my life. The plastic ones and even some of the metal ones will break, leaving me with an object not even useful for breaking into a Datsun 180B.
I'm going to try Green Hangers - my only reservation being durability - do they fall apart if they get damp?'
What I love about them so far is that they are readily available in places like Howards Storage* and Bunnings.

*footnote: When I arrived at Howards Storage to stock up on Green Hangers, they were having a sale on their wooden hangers - the ideals of the experiment were pushed aside for the longevity and looks of sturdy wooden hangers. And I have to say, my frocks and I are happy to hang this way for now.

A Sticky Situation

I've had a stationary fetish ever since I can remember - and now that I have 2 daughters of my own, I see the 'craft gene' is stronger than ever.  Today I went to a stationary superbarn to stock up on a few things ... I intended to get a sticky tape dispenser and some sticky tape but there was no biodegradable option available, and it made me realise that there are hundreds of little everyday things that could be made from recycled material, be biodegradable, just be better.

Sticky tape - is there a biodegradable option? I put this out to my network of friends and ...

Tadahh!  We have a result - thanks to Pauli, who simply used the interweb, we have Enviro Tape from Todae. I can order online and have it delivered, so no car trip. AND I'm pretty sure Pauli wasn't thinking about where to get biodegradeable sticky tape before reading this post - and now he knows ;-)
*Note - further investigation has revealed that Sellotape import all their sticky tape from China.  They weren't even sure if there is an Australian manufacturer of sticky tape.

But wait ... there's more!

The humble stapler is another little everyday object that consumes endless staples (where DO they come from and where do they GO??) but here is a pretty nifty alternative - the stapleless stapler!