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 22 January 2012

hedging, part two
















Very strong winds today. Made cycling tough--although I was pleased to have gone out there when I got back.

The light was beautiful. Really springlike.

Took these pics earlier in the week when I came across some more hedging--near Broadwell. The scene at the top--laid hedge, cuttings drawn into a pile and burnt--could have come straight from my childhood. Lovely to see hedges being laid in the traditional way in many different places round here.

The bottom photo is of an overgrown hedge near the one that has been laid. The pic shows what happens when a hedge is allowed to go wild. You end up with a lot of spindly poles and bushy thorns that eventually crowd each other out and lead to the death of the hedge. For a time this might be good for insects but in the end you'll get wind-throw--the poles being blown into the field or road--and the death of the hedge. The hedge will no longer be stock proof and in all probability will end up being grubbed up.

I think my dad would have loved seeing lots of hedges being laid in the traditional way.
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