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.

Wednesday 21 December 2016

christmas holidays, bare park, sunrise on the shortest day, parties, thrush singing between dean court and cumnor hill



My last day at work in 2016 was yesterday and the view from Raleigh Park was of bare trees and Oxford city centre almost obscured by mist.

This morning, on the shortest day, the sunrise over Bampton was bright pink and turquoise - the photo above gives a flavour but hardly does justice to the beauty of the sky as seen.

Last night there was a party at the library to celebrate the completion of the Relocation - a thank-you to all involved for all the hard work - and to continue the tradition of TABS parties in the new setting. It was wonderful. The last of a number of outstanding December parties in fact. The first MSt tutors Christmas get-together was last week and was brilliant!

For several days, not long after I have got off the bus and started my walk, I've come across a thrush singing in conifers above the little passageway between Dean Court and Cumnor Hill. Sometimes competing against traffic, sometimes against an aeroplane, the bird's song has been so clear and bright and cheering. I've posted a recording from Monday on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/frank-egerton/thrush-botley-oxford-19th-december-2016.
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