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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2017

I've spent the last few afternoons working out in the gardens.  Mild November weather (low 50's) makes up for the hot July weather in NC.

This perennial sunflower, which we planted last year, is over 12 feet tall.  It's been blooming beautifully for the last two months.

It's not always easy to find pineapple sage.  One year, the only place I could find it was at a store in Black Mountain, NC (4 hours away) when we were on vacation in July.  It takes all summer to get large, and then blooms wonderfully in the fall.

We have these chrysanthemums all over in the garden.  They're wonderful in the fall, and the insects love them.  These are some of the last blooms.

 

One last bloom on the twice-blooming azalea.

 

These chrysanthemums are the last perennial to start blooming in the gardens every year.  I love their bright yellowness.

I bought too many pansies this year, but I love them.

We've had two freezes so far.  We put some of the deck pots in the garage for two night so we still have some annuals - like this geranium.  

This African impatiens also was in the garage.

The hanging basket also went in the garage.

The last blooms on the tickseed

This cone flower is in a pot waiting for us to finish redoing part of the flower bed.  I'll plant it later this week.

Plants haven't been doing well in this part of the flower bed for the last few years.  We dug lots of bulbs, and a few not-very-happy plants out of it yesterday, and our sons are digging it up, adding soil amendments, and mixing it all together.  Tomorrow, we'll finish up, and then I have lots of bulbs, pansies, and perennials to put in. 

See more November Bloom Days at May Dreams Gardens!

Just Getting Started - Tony Bennett/"Cheek to Cheek" - Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

"It is hard for us to appreciate the courage of our families when they came over to America (and every American family, save for Native Americans, has 'come over' at some point).  To be from a small town where everyone knows everyone, then leave everything you know and cross an ocean, and then to arrive and try to make new lives in a place where you don't even speak the language, with people from all over the world brushing up against one another - that's truly courage.  That's why my heart is with immigrants we see all over the world today" - Just Getting Started - Tony Bennett

I started reading this book on vacation, three weeks ago, and I'm still reading it.  I've read numerous chapters out loud to my family, but I only read a chapter a day.  I'm trying to stretch out reading it since it's so good!

Each chapter is about a person in his life and what he learned from them - from his parents, to earlier 20th century performers such as Fred Astaire, artists such as Picasso, musicians such as Count Basie, and more recent performers such as Lady Gaga, with whom he recorded a whole album, Cheek to Cheek, in 2014.  He occasionally mentions negative traits, but doesn't dwell on them.  This is the opposite of a "kiss and tell" memoir - it's a celebration of talented people in his life.  

Here are Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performing Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" at the 57th Grammy Awards where they won the award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.