Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

dawn chorus, barn owl, 192, kingcups




























Up early this morning because there were assignments to go through.

Went out onto the lawn with a cup of tea to enjoy the twilight. Only to be deafened by the dawn chorus. Retreated to tranquillity of kitchen.

But not before being stunned into complete immobility by the sight of a barn owl perched on our neighbour's fence. Then a particularly loud-voiced sparrow struck up and the owl morphed into a fluffy body and a very feline profile with pointy ears scowling to the left. Can't win em all.

Talking of double-takes, I was surprised to see in one entry on 192.com that the people who sold us the house ten years ago are still here, living with us. I wonder where they are.

After the owl-cat incident I cycled for an hour, coming back along the gated road, where these two pics were taken.

I was especially excited to see the kingcups, which cheered an otherwise fetid-looking ditch, whose surface was stirred by disturbing bubbly burps as I approached.
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