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.

Saturday, 13 August 2011

time, ripening, mushroom risotto















The creative writing summer school seminar series I'm teaching at Exeter College, Oxford is about to enter its third and final week. Colleagues said the time would pass quickly and it has. It's whizzed by. Not least because the group is a great one to work with.

Talking of time passing fast, we're off to a 60th birthday party this weekend. Was it ten years ago that our friend was fifty? I suppose it must be. Help!

The weather was wet and overcast this morning when I went cycling, adding to the landscape's already autumnal look. Most fields are now cut and many have been cultivated. The hawthorn berries are full and the crab apple trees laden with fruit.

Another year is ripening.

Meanwhile, had lunch with two colleagues yesterday at Branca in Walton Street, Oxford. By chance we all wanted the mushroom risotto, which was simple and delicious. We also had great fun chatting.
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