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.

Sunday 1 January 2017

beauty and the chill‎, reviving trad beetroot soup, slug attack, quiet night in, meeting friends, happy new year!!, touch


The, at times, quite beautiful misty walk along the Thames led to a chill and a couple of somewhat lost days of holiday...

‎Though I was revived by bowls delicious beetroot soup which has been a staple of our Christmases and New Years since we first took an allotment in 1989.

This year's crop of beets took a long time to get going but in August suddenly grew full and strong. The vegetables kept healthy right up to about ten days before Christmas. I went up to the allotment to attend to something and looked across at the crop - only to see that about two-thirds of it had been chomped, well and truly, by slugs. The surviving beets were immediately harvested and J's soup is one of the best ever.

A quiet end and beginning to the New Year last night, spent at home, watching episodes of Mr Selfridge on DVD.

It was lovely to meet with old friends this lunchtime.

Happy New Year!‎!

--

Touch

The infinity of touch
Reassures that all will be well.
As much of an illusion, perhaps,
As everything good in this world,
Which seems tilted
Towards evil and madness.
Yet can anyone deny the transcendence
Of touch?
And that has to be good.
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