IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ!
13th June, 2007: I've moved the Chronicles to a different format, now powered by WordPress. You can reach them at http://www.glpease.com/BriarAndLeaf. I've converted all the articles to the new format, so they are all accessible there. This is a good step toward making the Chronicles more usable. I've put a search box in, and you can subscribe to them via RSS. It'll also make it a lot easier for me to maintain things, so I'm more likely to post new articles frequently. Too, some, but not all, of the articles will allow comments, so you can share your own views with others. I think it's really a great step forward. For once, technology truly serves us, rather than the other way round.
Effective immediately, this page, or should I say this version of the Chronicles, will no longer be supported. I'll keep the articles here for a while, for those who have links to them, but they will eventually go away, and this page will only be a redirect to the new location. -glp
I've had it in mind to do this for some time, but some itinerant laziness, coupled with a lingering concern that no one would find it interesting enough to read, conspired to keep me from putting up the page. I guess I'm over it. Don't take it too seriously. I don't. This ain't going to be fine lit-ra-ture. but rather just chaotic thoughts collected in something that may occasionally resemble order, in a strange, stream of consciousness sort of way. Naturally, the writings here are likely to be sometimes highly opinionated. While it's certainly not my intention to offend anyone, it's inevitable that some of my opinions will be at odds with those of others. I'll probably even skoff at the "common wisdom" on occasion. So be it. I put more stock in experience than in folklore.
So, here will be found some of the ramblings that rattle and roll around in the pinball machine of my brain behind the scenes. I'll share tasting notes, ideas, experiments that worked, and some that failed, and the occasional wacky nonsense that ultimately turns into a finished product. Secrets will not be revealed, of course, but some of the wild and wooly world of tobacco blending will be exposed (and, I promise not to say "Crikey!," except for just that once). Musings on pipes, the interactions between pipes and tobaccos, and other esoteric and arcane subjects will , no doubt, also be included, and perhaps, even something useful might be found, by those who dare to probe the mysterious and murky depths of... <insert cheesy B&W horror movie organ-music here>