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, 25 April 2015

spam..., bike maintenance, spud planting, maris peer, champagne rhubarb disaster, unconscious memory, rita ricketts' scholars, poets and radicals

















After the spam email got onto jtns earlier and was speedily deleted thanks to an alert from @rupertbu on Twitter, I changed the tyres and brakes on the bike and replaced the back inner tube. There's been a slow puncture for some weeks and the back tyre was nearly bald. Good that it's all sorted now.

This afternoon, it was spud planting - the dibber's annual outing (for previous years, see post of Friday 18th April 2014 and links). Desiree and Kestrel - old favourites - plus Maris Peer (one that J likes). Also planted some champagne rhubarb. After last year's disaster - I think I planted the crowns upside down... It's so difficult to tell! Hope I've got it right this time. Then I put in some onions (Karmen and Sturon) and some shallots (Picaso and Vigamor).

Two events I'm looking forward to next week are the fourth Unconscious Memory Network seminar, entitled Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis, and a launch for my friend Rita Ricketts' book on the Blackwell collections, Scholars, Poets and Radicals.
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