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 4 October 2014

digging, winter veg, mst res, 0th week, margaret keeping, woodstock bookshop, conted open day, stowe, log fire



















Dug over the last patches of ground on the allotment this morning before the rain started.

The allotment is really a summer garden but there are a few things for winter. Beetroots have done well and there are carrots, parsnips and turnips, Swiss chard, black Spanish round radishes and some miner's lettuce and other winter salads. There are one or two brassica's that were trying to grow in amongst the courgettes and underneath the runner bean wigwams that might come to something. I also left a couple of cucumber plants to see if the one small fruit on each might grow on a bit. I have to say that cucumbers didn't do that well this year.

Loved the MSt residence last weekend and early this week. So nice to meet the new students I'm supervising.

With Oxford 0th Week starting Monday, there have been lots of preparations being made for undergrad and grad inductions. There's always so much to do at this time of year, no matter how much you try to save yourself time by thinking ahead in the summer.

On Monday evening, I'll be in conversation with Margaret Keeping at the Woodstock Bookshop. Looking forward to this. (Btw, I'll be doing an event at the Department for Continuing Education Open Day on 4th November at Rewley House. More on this nearer the time.)

Today was Old Stoic Day at my old school and I'd like to have gone back. When I was there for the careers fair I didn't have time to walk round the grounds and I thought it would be fun to do this in the early autumn. Sadly, though, working on the library e-skills training session took precedence.

First log fire of the autumn.
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