farewell from jtns

Enjoyed walking the Oxford canal from Wolvercote Green to Hythe Bridge Street this morning - along the newly resurfaced towpath! Fantastic that it is now all-weather!

The other photo shows larch roses on the tree that featured in the first pic I posted on jtns. When we lived in Oxford, Jess and I used to love the first sightings of larch roses on this same tree.

And so farewell from jtns. As mentioned a while back, it's been my intention for some time to stop posting to this blog on its tenth birthday - today! - so that it becomes a self-contained work of life-writing covering ten years of my life.

I hope readers have enjoyed the posts and pics.

I loved writing the blog - even during the periods when it was therapy.

I'm always surprised when people tell me they read my blog - surprised and really delighted.

Thanks for reading. And although jtns is coming to its close, there might just be morethoughtsnstuff...

more gales and downpours, bright green grass, downton the movie, thames towpath from osney bridge to port meadow, overlays of memory

More gales and downpours. Got drenched cycling this morning and came across scatterings of debris every so often - even a branch across the start of Calcroft Lane (aka the Gated Road) at Clanfield. The ditches and steams were full and when we drove to Burford this afternoon, there was flooding in the fields.

What a winter!

On the plus side, the grass is bright green and the plants in the garden are thriving.

Have started to watch Downton the movie. Amazed to see a post van driving along the lane beside the church for what seemed an age, whereas in reality it would have taken seconds. Fascinating manipulation of time and space.

The cinematography and lighting - beautiful naturally lit interiors - are superb and, presumably, are what you get for your money when you're making a feature film, as opposed to a television series.

The top photo, above, looks rather menacing - the result of the jagged shape of the fencing in the foreground. Though the view was gentler than that in reality - and in the colour original. I changed it to black and white because I was wanted to intensify the patterns in the composition.

I remember discovering this towpath shortly before moving to our flat on Osney Island in the late eighties. I was so thrilled and imagined walking along it from Osney Bridge to Port Meadow and the Perch at Binsey at the weekend. In those days it was more of a rough track and had yet to be surfaced. The experience of walking it was in any case much more bucolic because none of the development between it and the railway line had begun and the waste land was densely overgrown.

Much has changed but the overlays of memories remain!

flooded water meadows near north hinksey, canal towpath improvements completed last friday!

Pics of a walk I did a couple of weeks ago when the Thames flooded the meadows east of North Hinksey, Oxford. Stunning views that morning, though I remember worse floods in the 1990s - at least this time I could walk along the causeway between the innundated fields.

Meantime, I learnt from the Council website that the Oxford canal towpath improvements from Wolvercote Green to Aristotle Lane should have been completed last Friday. Yey!

brrrr! what's new! all-weather towpath, what's left of me is yours by stephanie scott

Brrrr! Frosty morning. But then it's soon going to be... unseasonably warm again. So, what's new this late winter!

Haven't been able to walk the canal towpath between Wolvercote Green and Aristotle Lane for some months now, not because of the mud - which there would have been in JCB buckets - but because it's being upgraded. The work will soon finish, hopefully. True, a certain amount of rustic charm will go, but the towpath becoming all-weather is very appealing. My office carpet will be less muddy too.

Thrilled to see featured in the Guardian, Oxford MSt in Creative Writing graduate, Stephanie Scott, and her debut novel What's Left of Me is Yours. Several years in the writing, the book's pre-publication buzz is a testament to Stephanie's unwavering professionalism, hard work and dedication to her craft. As her advice to aspiring writers illustrates: 'Persevere and believe in yourself and your project.' Can't wait to read the book when it comes out on 21st April (published by Orion)!

super-frosty, good riddance to rain, veg, christmas break, brideshead revisited, first week

Super-frosty morning in west Oxfordshire but I'm still hopeful of a cycle later.

Thank goodness the rain's gone. Some downpours at the start of the week were horrendous! One evening, I got off the bus and ran to our car - only about 20m - and I was completely soaked!

Veg has kept going on the allotment but the downside of the frost is that some will probably start to rot.

Wonderful and refreshing Christmas break! Lots of long walks - taking to the high ground above the flooded Thames valley - amazing food, catching up with friends and family, and Victoria and Brideshead Revisited on DVD. I don't think I saw all of the latter when it was originally broadcast, so it's great to watch it all now - and it's fascinating to see the programme again after nearly 40 years. It remains rather wonderful.

First week of term begins tomorrow, though the working year has been busy from the start.

waterlogged allotment, christmas veg saved from the depths, happy christmas!!!!

Really surprised how well the winter veg has done this year. The allotment has been waterlogged or flooded for a couple of months. The worst flooding has been over the last few days and it was quite a struggle to get this lot out, as I sank into the mud and my wellies sprang a leak! Still, all ready for Christmas lunch now!

Happy Christmas!!!!

barrington and sherborne park walks, wigeon, end of full term, christmas cheeses!

We spent the weekend's mornings walking on the Barrington and Sherborne Park estates near Burford and yesterday morning we rambled the gated road near Clanfield. Managed to dodge the rain.

Saw wigeon on the brook below Sherborne house.

Great to have a few days off after the end of full term.

Bought slices of cheese to taste-test for Christmas from the Cotswold Cheese Company.

frosty walk and views, whistling east wind

Had some time in hand before I was due at work yesterday morning but found that the canal towpath is being repaired between Wolvercote Green and Aristotle Lane, so I did the Godstow and Port Meadow route instead. Breathtaking frosty views!

Exceptionally chilly, though. Or perhaps the way the air felt was exaggerated because it's been a relatively mild winter up to now. Home certainly felt cold, as it does when the wind is in the east and whistles through, between back and front doors!

portugal, waterlogged veg, teaching, an imaginary interview with sir thomas bodley

A wonderful break in Portugal - staying near Trancoso and in Porto.

Back to an allotment that isn't as flooded as I expected, although the ground is still sodden. Wondering whether carrots, beetroots, parsnips, chard and leeks will make it to Christmas.

Last of my face-to-face teaching commitments before the new year yesterday. A full but terrific day. Really enjoyed working with this year's students.

I was thrilled that recently two pieces I wrote in the summer were published on the Modern Languages Schools Blog, Adventures on the Bookshelf. One on the amazing Taylor Institution Library and its equally amazing Reader Services team. The other, an imaginary interview with Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library (originally published on the estimable Le mot juste en anglais and Clio - la muse de l'histoire websites in California in English and French).

The latter piece was an unexpected commission. I wasn't sure I had done the right thing in accepting at first but once I had completed my research and began to write, the project was incredibly fulfilling and enjoyable.

edinburgh, jisc digital leaders, cox apple, delicious

Spent a couple of days in Edinburgh a fortnight ago and again this week.

I was part of the JISC Digital Leaders programme, which I really enjoyed. Learned so much and met great people.

Not much time to enjoy the city but some terrific circuits of Carlton Hill after breakfast each day. And just looking out of the windows upon this glorious city was a treat.

Brought a Cox apple with me to remind me of home. Delicious!

winter veg, bumper apple crop

Looking back at the spring and summer, conditions on the allotment were difficult, and yet it has been a rewarding year. Better winter veg - apart from parsnips (it's always, apart from parsnips, it seems...) - than ever. I think this results from being able to get started in good time, before the weather changed, giving rain when it was needed. So, great carrots, beetroot, spuds, onions, leeks and chard. Not a huge range but plenty to enjoy and keep us in touch with the land during autumn and winter.

Bumper Cox apple crop still going strong.

moonbeams, week's holiday, step by small step, best things, friendships, apples

More moonbeams. Full, this time.

More moonshine? That would be cruel.

A week's holiday (amongst other things) since this photo was taken. Wonderful. Relaxing.

Not so, the political events, though no one can predict what will happen next, I don't think, and maybe it is best to take things step by small step, trying to hold on to values and friendships and the best things in one's life in the midst of the storm.

A time for putting much of the allotment to bed for the winter, of lifting the remaining potatoes, of enjoying picking and eating apples.

fab moon, david cameron's memoirs, heatherdown, i remember, i remember, stowe, sorry mess

Although the full moon isn't until tonight, the almost full moon last night was pretty fab!

I was intrigued to read in the Times that David Cameron had been to the same prep school that I attended, Heatherdown. His account of the bath line ups, complete with the headmaster wreathed in pipe smoke, resonated, although I thought his recollections did sound a little worse than I remembered. Surprising, given that he was there a few years after me - one would have hoped that things had improved by then. Though from what he says, I must have overlapped with his elder brother for a term.

I've not written much about Heatherdown in this blog - just one post, if I remember rightly, called... i remember, i remember, which focuses on arriving at the school on the same day as Prince Andrew. In the light of later events in his life, such far off and innocent days.

I take the point that Cameron makes about going away to boarding school aged seven (eight in my case) seeming 'brutal' and 'bizarre'. But prep school, just like Stowe, was at times for me a refuge from what was happening at home. I remember walking round and round the boundaries of the sports fields trying to make sense of all the things that had been said during the rows between my parents. Things I've only really been able to understand fully by reading the family papers after their deaths.

Will I read more of Cameron's memoirs? I dare say I will - they are living history, after all. Though I can only share his regrets about the sorry mess we are in now.

tomatoes!, mellow, moon watching

J's cherry tomatoes! They and the beefsteak variety have done amazingly well this year. Often they succumb to blight quite early - the blight here being much worse than it was in Oxford, for some reason - and we ripen them in a drawer with an apple. But this time, it's great to be able to pick them and enjoy them fresh as we pass by.

Some lovely mellow September days this week.

The other evening we sat at the top of the garden in the twilight and watched the moon.

working in oxford, walks, cox's orange pippin, sparrow hawk

Worked in Oxford yesterday. Had a lovely walk beforehand, along the Oxford canal, across Port Meadow and beside the Thames. It's over eighteen years since we moved from Osney. The time has flashed by but it's great to still have the opportunity of doing the walks I loved from those fourteen years spent on the Island.

Ate our first Cox apple yesterday. Gorgeously rich sweetness. It went well with the Abondance goat's and cow's cheese we brought back from our holiday in the Alps.

Coming downstairs this morning, I was surprised to see the sunflower hearts bird feeder on the lawn. I couldn't think what had brought it down - a cat or a squirrel, perhaps. Then I found four great tit tail feathers on the patio below where it had been hanging. Later J said there had been a hawk about yesterday and she had chased it away from the bird table. The culprit, I reckon. Sparrow hawk.

la chapelle-d'abondance, montreux, the late breakfasters by robert aickman

Superb short holiday, staying with friends in La Chapelle-d'Abondance in the Haute-Savoie! Preceded by a fabulously delicious and convivial lunch in Montreux, with gorgeous views of Lake Geneva.

Holiday reading was The Late Breakfasters by Robert Aickman (a Faber Finds reprint from the author of MR James-quality ghost stories who also happened to be one of the co-founders of the Inland Waterways Association - and who had many other talents and claims to fame). The author was suggested by an MSt student - a recommendation for which I am extremely grateful.

first james grieve, scrummy veg

...Meanwhile, we harvested our first James Grieve the other day. More since.

And the allotment is coming into its own. Scrummy veg!

summer dredging, erosion?, summer school - wonderful!, oxford never sleeps!

After I saw the old laptop that had been dredged from the Oxford canal back in June, the dredging continued for several weeks and then moved on to the Thames nearby. A few of the items recovered shown above. One wonders how long it would have taken for the waters to erode the bikes.

When I last posted, I was about to start teaching my summer school course. Lots of work but what a fabulous experience. Plenty of wonderful writing from the students and such inspiring discussions!

Much happening at the libraries also. Oxford never sleeps these days!

dh@oxss, time!, creative writing summer school, pond, festooned

Really enjoyed co-presenting at the Digital Humanities @ Oxford Summer School on Thursday (Humanities Data strand).

It was a pleasure to talk people through the images, xml encoding and digital preservation sections of Emma's wonderful Digital Editions course. (I was also pleased, it has to be said, that our slot was the 9-10.30am one - before, that is, the day reached its highest temperatures!)

The summer school was held at Keble and I loved going back - I say going back but I spend much of my working life only about five minutes away. Even so, those five minutes do seperate me from the reality of the college.

On Wednesday, I went over to check out the room where our presentation was to be held. On leaving I turned down a narrow flagstoned path in between the Victorian buildings and the sight of the sun on the stone slipped me back across the years momentarily. Then I thought of how much time had elapsed since I was an undergraduate. So much has happened, yet the time seemed no time at all...

Now, preparing for the Creative Writing Summer School at Exeter College. Talking of time... Another summer school! So looking forward to seeing colleagues and meeting the students at the reception and dinner tomorrow!

(The picture of the pond was taken a couple of months ago - everything is rather more festooned now, and the lily pads are covering much of the water.)

wiltshire deep space, relaxed, punting

Had a wonderful week off, including a few nights away in Wiltshire. Deep space: thatched, flagstoned floor pub; tiny hamlet with, mostly, just the sound of the landscape to listen to; long walks through fields and along wooded hillside paths with not a soul about; delicious food and drink.

I've not relaxed so much in a week in a long while.

Saturday, took to the river - Cherwell - in the Kellogg punt. Not the agile undergrad I might once have been but OK...