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 29 August 2015

thames-side walk to work, past-what-past?, marking, time off, kitchen nearly there, yay!



















The bus was early yesterday and I was due at the Latin American Centre rather than the Taylor, so I walked from the Woodstock Road to Godstow, then along the Thames to Binsey, down fisherman's walk and through the streets to work.

It was a beautiful morning.

I remember now, at my laptop keyboard, that this time last year, more or less (see 23rd August 2014), I recalled having walked the part of Port Meadow beyond Godstow Abbey in the 80s as therapy and how odd it was to have been walking the same stretch in the years following 2010, still  haunted by the past. Well, I was able to report last year that on that occasion I was at peace with the past. Yesterday, the past didn't feature at all, only the beauty, then and there.

Some more marking to do. Then I'm taking time off for closed week and St Giles' Fair. Bliss after a busy, busy summer. The kitchen's near-enough finished too. Yay!
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1 comment:

  1. Margaret Keeping29 August 2015 at 16:54

    Enjoy your week off Frank. But if you have a spare half-hour would love to catch up.

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