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.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

whitsun weekend bampton



Had a great time at the Whitsun celebrations in Bampton. True, there was some travelling to be done, family to see--which turned out to be an enriching and poignant experience--but there was still plenty of time left over to enjoy the festivities.

Loved best of all going to the Morris Clown late on Sunday night and watching the musicians and singers. As usual the way it all worked was someone would play a note then talk the others through the tune (often a nod and a word was enough) before a few of got going on it. It might be just a couple of people who decided to play or nearly the whole group, at others it was just someone singing unaccompanied.

What I found amazing, though, was how the drinkers kept drinking and chatting, as if the music were in the background. Well, it was but it was so much more than that. Here was this extraordinary event taking place in a pub on a Whit Sunday, with talented singers playing fascinating instruments or singing narrative songs with their beautiful voices. This was unaccountably special.

Thanks to Jamie Long (http://www.myspace.com/jamielongmusic) and the others for a brilliant evening.

Thanks too to the Morris men and to friends C and S and E and A for the barbies.
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