Again, I am up earlier than I planned. But I prepared: a mix of Stirling Flake and Match Prince Albert, about 30/70, dried on a saucer before dinner, then loaded into the Jeantet horn-stemmed straight billiard before I went to bed. I'm puffing gently on it as I type and watch (sort of) a Cannon episode from 1976.
ETA: With relights and breaks, including one for some toast, this pipeful came in at nearly an hour. And the Jeantet does not have a particularly big bowl, either. But this mix leaves a faint "toasted" aroma on my beard and mustache! I like mixing tobaccos to see what results.
A disgustingly hot and humid Friday morning, and I'm on my couch indoors in the cool sipping my coffee. Pipe: my first vintage buy, a Stanwell straight billiard (the "lieutenant's pipe"), with Mac Baren Mixture Scottish burning happily away in the bowl.
Didn't get a pipe in last night (after 26 hours in airplanes and airports, I just wanted to sleep).
Day off today, so I was planning to take care of the lawn, which after two weeks is beginning to look like something out of Apocalypse Now. Thunderstorms last night had other ideas, so I guess I'll just have another cup, and a big bowl of 5100 in my 2018 L.E. Erik...
Coniston Cut Plug is airing out in the Nording Compass. That might be smokeable later today.
In the meantime, I rubbed out a little more than would fit in that small bowl, so the remnants are being smoked in my curved Parker Panel, mixed with a little bit of Gawith's Kendal House, and MySmokingShop's Gentleman's Choice.
After a brief nap on a hot afternoon, I decided on a short pipe. My choice of tobacco kept it short: C & D Crooner, in the small carbureted Steel's Zulu I've set aside for that leaf. Ten minutes and my mouth was tingling. That stuff is . . . muscular. Just that ten and I tapped the pipe out (not much left in the small bowl). From now on I'll mix it with something milder!
My morning pipe w/ coffee: C & D Pegasus in the "Prince of Wales" small apple I bought in the '80s. Ten minutes' smoke woke me up along with the coffee. I set it aside with a cleaner up the spout, and tried smoking the rest again an hour later. It was too bitter for me even with the pipe cleaner to absorb moisture. So be it!
Setting up.for the herf in a couple hours (the Empire needs some time to dry). Up today are a pair of B&B Brown Leaf L.E. pipes by Mark Tinsky, the 2013 Jason and the 2014 Steve...
Edit: Join us if you've got the time (and aren't getting hailed on in Oklahoma), at 5pm EDT:
Sneaking in a couple of pipes late this evening. WC Blue Ridge Special in a Northern Briars Rox Cut Jade Panel; KG Sutliff VaPer 2.0 in the PSD 2024 POTY, a Ropp Lumberman with a bone stem; the inaugural smoke.