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, 15 May 2011

parched















Ridged up spuds on allotment yesterday and put up runner bean wigwams today. No sign of seeds I sowed three weeks ago coming through. Ground warm but as dry anything. Still, tilled earth looks nice--apart from bindweed, which I pulled this afternoon. Fistfuls.

Enjoyed cycling this morning. The meadows along the Great Brook from the Isle of Wight bridge, though, are parched now. The water level in the Great Brook is low, as it is in the strange semi-circular 'moat' at the far end of the first field up from the bridge. Compare this view with that of a few weeks ago and at the start of the year.
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1 comment:

  1. Kathryn16 May 2011 at 15:20

    It's not just me facing a bean famine then? One out of 12 popped his head up, got eaten by a snail, and the rest haven't bothered. I've got tomatoes, two cayenne peppers, one round courgette and a cobnut squash. 'Tis looking a bit bare.

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