Colloquial expression used in casual conversation to refer to the recent past or current period. Often used with a sense of 'nowadays' or 'in this recent stretch of time'.
この頃 also means 'these days' or 'lately', but is slightly more formal than ここん所. ここん所 is more casual and often used in spoken Japanese.
Etymology
Contraction of 此処の所 (ここ の ところ), literally 'the place of here', which came to mean 'recently' or 'these days' through a metaphorical extension of 'this place in time'.
