Grass widower again

This time for a whole week coinciding with the start of my vacation! K came and left and I was alone with E. I almost immediately set up my pipe workshop in the kitchen and started on an idea that I've been nursing for some time; A take on the Calabash idea.

I got to use a new rustication technique with my Dremel and a new contrast staining idea with the Pimo powder and alcohol (Rum and Calvados, no less, since I don't approve of using denatured alcohol for something that will interfer with my body chemistry. The amounts used for a pipe are less that a shotglass so I don´t understand why anyone doing this as a hobby would bother to use anything else...).

I managed the drilling a bit better this time, and by handfiling a Vulcanite churchwarden stem end I got a fairly snug fit on this one! I bent it slightly but markedly, and got a beauy-ti-ful smoker! I'm proud of this one!

The rustication and contrast stain work together to form the impression of a smouldering ember and the shape resembles a cauldron on the hearth. Or a mushroom cloud forming where the raw plateux is a snapshot of the chaotic whirls. Or a chanterelle with maggot holes. You pick.

Grass widower

Yep, for three whole days I can do whatever I want to do.

Yesterday, the hottest day of the year so far, that ment frying up goat's cheese in Serrano ham packages with honey, an entrecote medium rare and a bottle of rosé from the fridge in an ice bucket.

Sitting in my favourite chair in the living room to eat and listen to the whole album "We're only in it for the money" with FZ and the Mothers of Invention. After the meal was finished I poured myself another glass of ice cold rose wine, and stuffed my Meerschaum with what appears to be the last leaf of Rattray's Marlin Flake.

Leaning back and lighting up, listening to "Concentration Moon" - Ahhh! Took a refreshing sip from the glass, then a few from the pipe then the glass then the pipe ...

Recruiting fellow kapnismologists

Every party I go to, bringing my pipe, I normally get at least one out of two reactions:

1. That's cool/weird/oldfashioned/nice!
Normally I get a fairly positive reaction when I whip out the pipe and start to load it. Once I light it people tend to enjoy what I am smoking (almost always outdoors, and almost always some crowd-pleasing tobacco like MacBaren's Dark Twist or some other Danish/aromatic), and sniff in the air stating that some relative used to smoke pipe and they loved the smell.

2. Can I try?
At almost every party at least one person wants to try it for themselves. I tend to let them if they are nice and of age. Almost all of them say that they enjoy smoking it and some even say that they are going to buy their own pipe ASAP.

Now A, a working colleague is pondering taking up the pipe. We'll see, summer is hot right now and pipe smoking not that tempting. Maybe after the vacations...

Ahh, Denmark land of the free - smoking!

In Denmark (as opposed to Sweden) it is still allowed to smoke in the restaurants. And someone toting a pipe is not seen as a Spanish Inquisitor ready to torment the congregation with his torture instrument, but rather as a jolly old fellow with an interesting accessoire.

Copenhagen

Went to Copenhagen with K and D to finally celebrate the exam. Had a great day, visited the re-opened Glyptoteket. Had a Snaps, beer and some smörrebröd at Tivolihallen just across from Glyptoteket, and last but not least bunkered up on different tobaccoes I've been wanting to try for some time now. I also bought a new pipe head for my Alco - I chose a Gold Meerschaum Lined Apple to use as tobacco testing pipe.

Here's the tobacco I bought:
Mc Connell's Tobacco:
Scottish Cake
Oriental

Peterson's Tobacco:
Connoisseur's Choice

Orlik Tobacco:
Three Nuns Curly cut
New Ripples

My Own Blend Tobacco:
Kong Frederik English Mixture

Astley's
No. 99 Royal Tudor

Seven tins. I opened the M.O.B. It was delicious!
I opened the Three nuns - it was OK - I might need some getting used to the Perique...

Stowed away the rest - we'll see for how long...

No Dunhills

Sonja called from Sthlm to tell me that she'd been overly optimistic regarding her dad's old pipes. It turned out they WEREN'T Dunhills after all. Instead they were of a brand called Brilon and she also said that her dad had "really been enjoying his pipes", something that lead me to believe they were not worth the restoration trouble... I got pictures of an elderly slobby guy drooling into these plastic stems and not bothering to clean them... I don't know.