what a July I have had!

All in all a very eventful July ! Shame about the trees Sb, and your quilts are fantastic. How do you find the time.

I am filled with admiration at the sight of those beautiful quilts. What lucky friends you have!

So sorry to read about all the not so good things out in the garden. It has been a very strange summer and the weather has dealt us a very rough hand. Hopefully August will be more like summer and everything out there will get a chance to recover.

true the dead plants provide fresh planting opportunities.
as for the time I am now retired and if I am in a sewing mood then that's what I do.

I am more upset about the fish then the plants,[is that blasphemy on a gardening site?] there were some that were very individual and they had names. One 'Marcelle' would only feed from pellets if put in a particular area of the pond. He was called Marcelle as he had a thin black line on his top lip like a Frenchman's thin moustache.

August so far hasn't been too bad apart from all the rain.

Wow you are "Tour de force" of quilt making. Reminds me of the tapestries on exhibit at The Cloisters - an old museum we have uptown. Sorry about the goldfish. At least you found the source of the problem.

Your Quilts are beautiful,you clever thing,sorry about your apple tree,well done to your daughter.

I've put a 'like' on your blog, only for the beautiful, stunning quilts. Otherwise it's a sad tale!
The trouble with losing large old trees is the disposing of them. It's weird about the yew, I thought they were about bullet-proof.
As for the fish, that's terrible and I can see why you would be more upset about them than the trees. I have never thought about Herring gulls raiding ponds, we have enough problem keeping the Herons off, don't want to worry about marauding gulls in the winter when they come inland. Sod's law about the duck dying in the water, another foot or two and it would have missed and been consigned to the compost bin!

Good grief what a lot going on there Sbg , I'm sorry about the fish what a nasty end for them ,we always have a couple of ducks visiting us in the spring we find they go into the smallest water places I wonder if it went into the pond and became caught up on something and couldn't escape .. I love your quilts I use to do a little all hand sown , I don't suppose yours are on show in Norfolk if they were I would love to go to see them ....

thanks for all the lovely comments re my blog.
herons had never been a problem as it is a raised pond about 3ft tall. they fish by wading so never enter the pond. its only been since last year that a gull has visited. rarely if ever see them on the bird table.

we have a chain saw and a log burning stove so disposal wont be a problem but I will miss the apples from them.

the yew got stressed the previous wet year as the ground was regularly waterlogged. the neighbours have concreted a large area of their gravel drive and removed several shrubs. the rain runs off into our garden.

I don't exhibit my quilts and these two will be going to a mother and son. the son is a good mate of my OH. I show my quilts at our local quilters group but we don't ehibit as such.

Your patchwork quilts are stunning my sister use to make them they are not an easy thing to make as some think credit to you Seaburngirl. What a shame about your fish I hope you dont loose to many more. I would cry if my Apple tree died if I had it so long there is some thing magical with old aplle trees to me. Sorry you ve had such bad lucky I hope its all on ward and up wards for you from now on.

What a chapter of accidents Seaburngirl. So sorry about all the losses. Its hard to imagine where that half duck came from - OH suggested a fox might have dropped it if something startled him. Will you be replacing the apple tree? A young one won't be the same but its a start.

fabulous quilts SBG....sorry about the fish and the trees...i've lost a cordyline this summer....no idea why...

Oh, what I month you have had. Can totally understand about the fish and how upsetting it must have been for you. We had a pond in our last garden and when we where selling found it very worrying about what would happen to the fish. Luckily, the buyers partly loved the garden due to the fish and pond as they had always had a pond so we knew the fish would be well looked after. Sorry about your trees. Neighbours don't always think about how they change their garden will effect yours but I won't get started on that as having lots of trouble with my neighbours. Wow, your quilts are amazing. It's something that I would love to do but haven't built up the courage to try yet. :-)

Congratulations to your daughter for gaining good results and to you for creating those amazing quilts. They will be treasured I'm sure. Sorry to hear of the fallen tree and events in the pond though .....

Those quilts are so good Seaburn, I wish I could make things like that, sadly I can hardly hold a needle these days so wouldn't even attempt one for a child, truthfully I have never had much patience for sewing or knitting, always admire others though, its so sad about your fish, as I was reading it I was trying to figure out what could have caused it, something rotting in the pond is something I never would have thought of, you do get very fond of them and I too would have been very upset, like you some of ours were put in over 30yrs ago, here's hoping the rest survive..
A lady I chat to has just lost a tree like that and also doesn't know why, we hear of lots of trees and shrubs dying these days, I wonder, is it that we have the web now so everything is at our fingertips so quickly, or is it another thing to expect from our changing seasons, we've had to remove a huge stump from near the pond, another Ceanotus died last winter, that's two I've lost in the last five years,neither went gradually so it wasn't a case of pruning and try to save it..
Well done to your daughter, hope she does as well next year, our granddaughter has just done her second year, one more to go.....

SG: So very sorry you have lost so many fish. We lost two large ones some years ago during a very hot Summer. I was really upset as we had had them a long time. Since then our fish have been smaller and the heron has been around!

They say things come in threes so it looks as if your run of bad luck could be over.

Lovely quilts. Do you use a sewing machine or are they all by hand?

Update.

Pond: The fungus infection looks to be under control which is good but the 3/4 yr old only gold one is missing and several lily leaves are broken off, I suspect that gull. We will have to net the pond I think. Something we have never had to do.

Garden: I know there is honey fungus in this border and the RHS identified which species it was. I was 'lucky' as it was the species that only affects plants that are old and dying anyway. So the stresses of the recent weather etc will be the final reason.

Quilts: the majority of it is machine sewn though there are traditional English piecing blocks which are hand sewn with paper templates. the applique is hand sewn ,as the machine stitch is too 'heavy'. They are really straight forward to do but you have to cut out accurately to get the pieces 'square'. I started doing this back in February at a local sewing group, more for the company [OH is rather quiet and speaks really when needed, never idle chatter ;p)] and every one was so encouraging, sharing rulers etc.

I'm having a week off from sewing to do some gardening as the weeds have sneaked up and done their thing ;o)

My goodness SBG, what a month you had! So sorry aobut the apple tree. Were you able to salvage any of the apples?
We only have five fish in our pond (a puddle according to the rude man at our pond shop) they're 3 years old this year and all growing well. I've no idea what kind they are (the OH would know) but I'd be devastated if we lost them. Especially as the grandchildren have named them! I hope yours now recover and go on to thrive. We have to net our pond in the autumn due to the large tree in our neighbour's garden dropping its leaves. Do you think a decoy bird might help? I don't like plastic animals etc in the garden myself, but if it helps to deter a pest I might consider it.
Good luck with the weeding, I hope it stays fine for you, with perhaps some sunshine too if you're lucky.

Well done to your daughter for her good results.
Your quilts are beautiful, such a lot of work. I made one years ago out of all the little dresses my daughter had grown out of. She still has & treasures it some 37yrs later, she uses it on the back of her sofa & snuggles into it on film night.
Shame about the trees, we had to take out an enormous healthy yew as it was starting to block our way in - mammoth task needing a digger! The upside is all the extra light & space you gain though.
I too was upset when I lost all my fish to an otter one year, I'd been thinking about offering them to others as there were so many in a very large pond.

Your quilts are lovely. It's nice to do something creative.
I'm sorry about your tree and fish. Sad to lose them after so many years. I hope nothing else goes wrong for you.