Photo's on my Phone 2nd July to 10th July 2024

 Another week of not much, except dog walking and drawing.

My friend and I took our love bugs for a walk up Hollerday Hill, where they chased each other up the hill, dug holes, slobbered on each other and played gentle tug of war. Siri always lets Edie have the stick/ball, he's twice her size and could easily win, but always defers to her in the end. Their bond is a beautiful thing to witness.

We spent some time at the allotment, its divided in half by the Tayberry (covered on green net on the second photo). 

Phil's half is neatly organised in rows, each time he plants he sifts the soil, all very scientific adding the right nutrients at the right time.

My half is chaotic and continues to evolve in its own special way. I've planted flowers and herbs along the edges, because I've always wanted a walled garden and this is the closest thing to one I can get. I'm growing a lot of onions and garlic, planted all over the place, courgettes, peas, beans and fruit bushes. I also have an asparagus bed which I'm very proud of, both my mother and granny had asparagus beds, neither were gardeners, but always produced a good crop each year. My bed is only in its second year, our soil is the worst possible soil for asparagus, I dug a couple of bags of sand in before I planted, the plants seem to be thriving and I have my fingers crossed for a good crop next year. I hope that one day Dais will follow in their footsteps and have one of her own.

My flowers are beautiful at this time of year, I'm especially proud of my rose William Lobb. I've had him quite a few years, he's moved from house to house in a pot, he's been at the allotment since we had it 3 years ago and this year he is spectacular and smells even better.

William Lobb grows next to my compost bins, those of you who remember NDS will recognise the bins.

On Monday we walked to the top of Dunkery Beacon, which is the highest point on Exmoor and Siri tried to dig up a stone to play with.

I was going to add more landscape photo's and talk about my relationship with the landscape, but I'm going to write a second post instead.

Ilfracombe is finished, I'll write a blog post when I've finished tidying it up.
Woolacombe is almost finished, think I might have spoilt it by colouring the roof's black, but never mind I might frame it anyway.

I only did one sketch last week, waiting in the car while Phil walked the dogs on the wrong side of Countisbury Hill, I'd strained my back from standing all day at the town hall market the previous day. The market was so good that I've treated myself to a posh concertina sketch book, I'm very excited, can't wait till it arrives.

Looking towards the East Lyn, drawn with a 0.03 pen

Goodbye Website

I have has a website since 1999.
Over the course of time I have built several sites with the help of site builders, I honestly think that this one is the best, but now is the time to say goodbye forever.

Before it goes you can find it here Amanda's Perkins Art

The site has galleries and a shop, the shop has never sold much more than a few crochet patterns, some months the sales will pay for the site, sometimes not.

Wix my site provider has tripled the prices of its services, even though I love it I can't justify the price for a glorified portfolio. Wix will close my site and I will lose my domain name on the 30th of May.

I'm not entirely sure what will happen as they provide a free website service and might transfer some of it to a free site, only time will tell.

The demise of my site will leave me without a on-line presence, so I have resurrected this blog.

I've had a blog since 2006, I started writing it for promotional purposes for my then business The Natural Dye Studio.  

It was called Dye Studio Diary.

The blog is a mix of yarn news & photo's and a personal diary of my life. 

In 2010/11 we went through a crisis of redundancy and losing our house, I blogged all the way through pouring my heart out, for me it was a cathartic process. At some point later I deleted all the emotional posts on the advice of my book agent, she didn't think potential publishers would want to read them.

My next blog was Amanda's Crochet Blanket Adventures

Again it was a mix of personal and professional, it covered the birth of my grand boy's and the birth of my crochet books.

At some point in time I stopped blogging as I had a brand new shiny website with a blog of its own.

Amanda Perkins Art website blog

I never liked it, it had no soul so I tried to be professional, I didn't blog very often as I had nothing to say.

There's not much more I can say about it, except it might disappear on the 30th of may.

So I'm back here after 4 years, posting about my life and art, it feels like I am talking to an old friend.

I know not many people will read this as the Facebook and Instagram algorithms have silenced me and only a handful of people will ever find it. 

But that's ok, my grandboy's will find me one day if they ever decide to look.

Love you both 💙💙