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, 29 March 2014

bright, misty, allotment, really warm, tables and chairs, novella


















Cycled this morning when it was bright and clear in some places and still misty in others.

Later I went to the allotment for the first time this year - apart from when I had to re-felt part of the shed roof in the middle of the winter. The ground remains pretty wet under the surface, although I was able to tackle the rather unsightly heap of old dug-out couch grass roots that I've built up over a couple of years. I shook the roots free of soil and bagged them up - they'll be taken to the tip tomorrow - before levelling the mound of fine soil.

It's a beautiful day - really warm now.

Back at the house I took the table and chairs at the top of the garden off their bricks and brushed them down. Then I got the other table and its chairs out of the shed and brought them to the patio by the house. The set at the top of the garden is made from ship's timbers and survives outside (so long as the legs are up on bricks) whereas the one for the patio is less robust.

During the week, I did more work on the novella. Great to be working on it.
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