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.

Tuesday 5 April 2016

tadpole nursery, thrush chick killed by jackdaws, nature, eh?


New life and then death in our garden this week.

On Sunday I took this little film of the tadpole nursery in our pond. The tadpoles all seem to hatch out at once and huddle together in the middle of the empty spawn. They wriggle and splash about.

But today there was a sadder scene. Two jackdaws suddenly attacked a thrush chick that was hopping beneath the bird feeders. I couldn't believe the speed and viciousness of the attack. The chick - which was quite big and able to fly - was killed.

Nature, eh?
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