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.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

wio party, alice's door, old friends, unexpected appearances, all at sea


A very enjoyable Writers in Oxford summer party, which was this year held in the Cathedral ‎garden at Christ Church.

An enchanting spot with on the south side the cathedral - which looks tiny from this angle - and, on the north, the doorway from the Deanery garden that so fascinated Alice Liddell and became part of the lore of the real-life story behind Alice in Wonderland. Find out more in this Telegraph article by Tim Richardson from 6th February this year (the 150 anniversary year of the novel): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11392305/Alice-and-Wonderland-the-real-gardens.html.

It was lovely to see old friends and to meet other friends who I hadn't realised were members of WiO.

I hadn't realised too that a fellow author was also a specialist marine photographer. Check out the magnificent photo galleries on her website: http://www.kathymansfieldphotos.com.

Now on the S1, heading home.

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Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone

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