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, 28 March 2015

bug, village pump, dh/cw, trust: a family story, shiver, record, allotment


















Had some sort of stomach bug that started not long after I'd written last week's post.

Knocked me for six, although I did get to Oxford for my meetings with the students on Sunday. When I was back home, though, I slept for nearly all the rest of the day. Have since heard of a number of people going down with the same thing. Has taken quite a long time to feel right - not quite there yet in fact.

Enjoyed cycling this morning. Took the photos above at Broadwell. I've passed the village pump countless times but have never till now tried to photograph it.

Continuing to develop the Digital Humanities/creative writing project. Also working on Trust: A family story - assembling material that I want to quote from, including relevant posts from jtns. It's quite strange reading through the BlogBooker PDF of all the posts since 2010 and seeing how the nightmare that detonated in my life almost as soon as I started writing it was reflected in the posts. Sometimes what I'm reading sends a shiver down my spine - but I'm glad I kept writing the blog and have a record of what I was living through.

Catching up with admin today and thinking about that allotment! If it hadn't been raining today I would have liked to get up there and start work.
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