Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · July 31, 2026
A Watch Buried Under a Tray of Rhinestone Brooches No listing, no catalog entry, no manufacturer copy will ever tell you that a decent watch sometimes surfaces face-down under a snarl of costume jewelry on a folding table with a moving blanket draped over the legs for warmth. That’s a Sunday-in-late-October detail, and it’s the … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 28, 2026
My eyes go straight to the shoebox before I’ve even scanned the rest of a garage sale table. Taped shut, marker-scrawled, wedged under some card table between a dead clock and a stack of paperback thrillers — that’s the box I want. Last June I handed over three dollars for one labeled “PENS + STUFF” … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 24, 2026
Years back, cataloging a different pen entirely, I wrote in my journal that a “clean” Parker 51 nib meant no hard starts and left it at that — no mention of feed condition, no note on the section threading, nothing about the cap lip. I look at that entry now and wince a little, because … Read more