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.

Friday 26 March 2010

nature notes

Early start this morning, so I could drive into Oxford for my 8 am MSt tute at Rewley with time to spare for a double espresso at Green's cafe. It was amazingly light when I was eating breakfast. Loved sitting in the kitchen looking out into the garden while munching toast and marmalade, no need of electric light, the door open.

April showers are here before the event, it seems. The air is warm and they will soon get the spring flowers moving. The daffs that ring the plane trees in Broad Street are finally out now and when I was walking back to the park-and-ride this afternoon it looked like the buds on the horse chestnuts in front of St Frideswide's church, Osney were about to burst open. Those trees are always well before most others--although I'm sad to say I think it is because they are stressed. Awful to imagine them being permanently under pressure for at least the last twenty-three years--I think it's some sort of strange fungus that they've got.

At the risk of sounding like a sadist, they do look great in the spring and early summer. It's when they get black and gummy later on that they're sad.

A weekend of marking online assignments beckons.

Right now, though, my printer has just entered 'power saver mode' and I think I'll do the same.

(Meanwhile, photoed these larch roses in the Parks, Oxford yesterday. Jess and I used to go and look at the roses on this tree when I was at Keble.)

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