memm, Author at Bleistift

School start pencils

Leave a Comment / Pencils, Seen in the wild / 30 August 2024 / Back to School, pencils, school, seen in the wild

By now, the new school year has started in most countries, and this year, I saw something I hadn’t seen before: Here in Northern Germany, in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, I have noticed houses decorated with large pencils. This is not very common, I only spotted a handful of houses like this, and seems to indicate that a child living in the house is starting primary school.

One of the houses with pencil decorations also had a Danish flag, so I wonder if this is a Danish tradition that has spread to Northern Germany.I have never observed this in England or Southern Germany.

If you know more about this, please let me know.

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Pelikan Hub Bremen 2024 Preview

2 Comments / Pelikan / 16 August 2024 / Bremen, Pelikan, Pelikan Hubs

After Hamelin’s acquisition of Pelikan last year, there have been some changes, including the announced closure of Pelikan’s sales and distribution locations in Hannover and near Berlin.

We’ll have to wait and see how Pelikan’s long term future will look like, but in the near future, we certainly have the Pelikan Hub to look forward to. I was lucky enough to be able to act as the Hub Master for Bremen again. As I am more familiar with Bremen by now, I found a more central location for the Pelikan Hub: Vegefarm, a Taiwanese, vegan restaurant that has kindly agreed to let us hold the Pelikan Hub there this year.

Looking forward to seeing all Bremen participants there on 27 September and also wishing participants of the other Hub locations a great time.

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A summery Noris

Leave a Comment / Seen in the wild / 20 July 2024 / Bremen, Noris, seen in the wild, Staedtler Noris

Bremen’s libraries are offering a holiday programme for children. It’s called Sommer Blub.

Using a Noris as part of the logo is of course an excellent choice: What symbol to use if you want to show creativity: a pencil! What pencil to use if you want to show a typical pencil: a Noris!

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The upcycled Noris in Germany

3 Comments / Pencils, Staedtler / 8 July 2024 / Noris, Staedtler, Staedtler Noris, upcycled Wood, Wopex

After being able to observe the shift from the traditional, wood-cased Noris to the new upcycled wood Noris in the UK last year (see The new, upcycled Noris) I was able to experience the same transition in Germany now.

What I saw is, of course, only a small snapshot of the two countries as I observed the transition in a city in North West England last year and now in a city in North West Germany. Other parts of the two countries might have experienced the change at different times.

In March 2024, about a year after the switch in the UK, supermarkets here still had the wood-cased version. Here is an example from Kaufland in Ritterhude.

By now, only the upcycled Noris is available. I assume the old ones sold out and stock just got replaced with the new version. I am not able to find the wood-cased Noris in any other supermarket in and around Bremen anymore, but some pockets with old stock might still be available, especially in shops with low turnover.