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 21 March 2015

frog spawn, daffodils, bloomin cold, stop-go spring, mst res, now you know by brian nisbet book launch

















There is frog spawn in the pond at the top of the garden.

There are daffodils out around the bases of the lime trees on the opposite side of the street.

It was still bloomin cold, though, when I went cycling early this morning.

Very stop-go, spring is.

This weekend it's the MSt in Creative Writing residence.  It will be great to see the students.

Looking forward to the launch of Now You Know by Brian Nisbet, a former student on the Diploma course. A wonderful man. The event, which will include music, readings and refreshments, is at Rewley House on Thursday 9th April from 4-6 pm.

'One of the most urbane, talented and erudite students I have ever taught... with a passionate hunger for poetry, language and ideas.' Jenny Lewis: Musician, Poet, Playwright; Tutor, Oxford University's Diploma in Creative Writing.

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