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, 10 October 2015

rising sun, leaves turning, last apple, first fire - not, ipm, digital bodleian


Gorgeous, rich, egg-yolk rising sun - seen from Cowleaze Corner this morning.

A few days ago it was difficult to spot the autumn in the trees but today leaves are turning or rippling and spinning from their twigs.

Yet still strangely warm. Haven't had that first fire, though at the beginning of September the temperature dropping at nights made me think it wouldn't be far off.

Before I went cycling, and while sipping tea and munching on the last apple from our first tiny harvest - oh and going through email (it is the start of term and there's masses of it) - there was a fascinating interview on iPM with a man from north Oxfordshire who traced his GI father and warm-hearted step family decades after the end of the Second World War. Well worth a listen!

Also, well worth exploring is the Digital Bodleian website, recently launched!
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