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 5 July 2014

heavy rain, tour de bampton-tour de yorkshire, guided retreat, sunny week

















It was raining heavily at 5 this morning and it only began to ease off when I was about half-way round my cycling circuit (mercifully somewhat flatter than the Yorkshire Dales stage of the Tour de France with its Buttertubs Pass and whatnot).

Speaking of the Tour, there was an excellent episode of Radio 4's Open Country (Tour de Yorkshire) this morning about the history of the landscapes that the cyclists will be bombing through, including the folklore behind the Buttertubs name.)

Moved at a gentler pace this morning, even taking time out to photograph the meadow cranesbill flower above.

Just a few pages more to read for the MSt Guided Retreat that starts tomorrow before returning to undergraduate portfolio marking for the rest of today.

Luckily, given the workload, I won't have to head for the allotment to do the watering. Though it has been a treat to be out there for half-an-hour in the late evening all this sunny week, watering, weeding and tidying.
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