The text block was in good shape: sewn on tapes, with only a few loose signatures near the front. The real damage was the cover, cracked along the joints from ninety years of being opened in a hurry.

The steps

1. Remove the old cover and the tape residue, slowly, with a bone folder and patience.
2. Resew the three loose signatures onto the original tapes.
3. Line the spine with mull and a strip of kraft paper.
4. Make a new case in grey bookcloth, with the old paper label saved and reapplied.

The hardest part was not technical. It was resisting the urge to make it look new. A dictionary that has been used for ninety years should look like it.

When I gave it back, my neighbour opened it at random, read the word sedulous out loud, and smiled. That was the whole point.

I am not a coffee expert. I just drink one cup every morning, and at some point I decided that one cup deserved a bit of attention.

The recipe

Bloom with a splash of water for thirty seconds, then pour the rest in slow circles. Drink it outside if the weather allows, inside by the window if it doesn't.

The most important ingredient is not on the card: doing nothing else while it brews.

Reading your own notebooks is a strange experience. Some pages are embarrassing, some are boring, and a few are much better than I remembered.

What surprised me most is how little the subjects have changed: walks, books, the weather, small projects. The handwriting changed, the paper changed, but I kept paying attention to the same things.

This blog started from those notebooks, and I still carry one. The best ideas tend to arrive when there is no screen around to catch them.