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 9 August 2014

brighter, rain, travellers' encampment, thick mist, summer school


















A brighter morning, after moderately heavy rain last evening and in the night.

Saw the travellers' encampment at Cowleaze Corner when cycling earlier. The corner was, I have always imagined, a piece of common land where cattle were pastured before being to taken to Bampton market in the nineteenth century. Though whether I'm being fanciful, I don't know! To me, anyway, the scene seems fitting and somewhat timeless. Also appropriate for a village that has a pub named The Romany - its sign showing a brightly-painted gypsy caravan.

Yesterday morning there was a thick mist to start with, though it cleared quickly once the sun was up. The top photo shows the sun rising over French beans and sweet peas, and a long strand of spider-web (if you look closely).

A tiring but a fulfilling week. Very much enjoying working with the summer school students. Today will be spent going through creative pieces submitted for the workshopping exercises next week and preparing for the seminars.

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