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, 6 May 2012

frozen, signs of spring, clematis, green alcanet etc, family biz!?















Last Saturday, drenched. This one, frozen. What's going on!?

Good cycle ride, though, once I got going. Signs of spring, even if it felt like the middle of winter. Loved the clematis and green alcanet by the above garden wall by Kencot and the cowslips and red dead nettle along Calcroft Lane (aka the gated road--the one without the gates).

Busy week--whenever isn't it? But a satisfying one. Felt I'd got some things done in the end.

Must say the essay I wrote about the sad family biz has been a 'good thing'--has helped to put a lot of things into perspective and has been pretty therapeutic. Looking back at what happened systematically, you think how the hell did everybody get taken in? There's a study in group dynamics there--that should keep a researcher or two going for years!

Pleased to have a couple of days off for the bank holiday. Feel I need it.
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