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.

Tuesday, 31 December 2013

happy new year!!!!

















Happy New Year!!!!
--
Visit
http://frankegerton.com (website)
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)

A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details

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Friday, 20 December 2013

happy christmas!

















Happy Christmas!
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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

stark, green, low light, roddy doyle's the commitments

































The cultivated fields look stark, what with their brown tilth and the bare hedges and trees. Yet elsewhere the grass remains green and surprisingly spring-like.

The low light levels make the days seem very short indeed - can't wait for the spring!

Though the excellent Radio 4 production of Roddy Doyle's The Commitments does much to cheer things up: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lknpn!
--
Visit
http://frankegerton.com (website)
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)

A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details

Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
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Wednesday, 11 December 2013

view from the bampton bus stop, mist, low light, wintry

















Misty start to the day.

Not quite at the shortest day but it certainly feels like the depths of winter - a state of mind brought about by low light levels, I feel, more than temperature or wintry conditions.
--
Visit
http://frankegerton.com (website)
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)

A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details

Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
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Monday, 9 December 2013

cycling, folly hill, harrowdown hill

















It was good to have time to cycle this morning (due in at 11 am again because I'm working late).

Took this photo from Calcroft Lane (the gated road) looking towards Folly Hill at Faringdon - it is visible, just, in the far distance, a little to the right of centre.

I alluded to Folly Hill in my comments on the use of the locus amoenus in Renaissance literature in the piece on Harrowdown Hill that I wrote in 2005 (see 2008 revised version on my website: frankegerton.com/nonfiction.html).

When I walked to Harrowdown Hill that morning, it was grey and there was a light mist, like today.

Now on the bus to work, almost at Oxford.
--
Visit
http://frankegerton.com (website)
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)

A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details

Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
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Sunday, 8 December 2013

up early, lime tree, oclw lunch, glasses, bike ride, christmas




















Up early because there was work to do.

The photos above are of the lime tree at the end of our garden at dawn this morning. Its winter look is very different to when I photographed it on 1st June.

I was sad to miss the life-writing lunch on Tuesday but it was fully booked by the time I knew I would be free to go. I look forward to more life-writing events in 2014!

Collected my new glasses on Thursday. Things are a little sharper but fortunately there wasn't too much to correct.

A lovely bike ride this afternoon when the work was done.

Looking forward to the Christmas break!
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