Eriostemon and Hardscaping the Front Yard

One of my favourite parts of working at the store is picking out the cut flowers for our hand-tied bouquets. Twice a week our flower truck arrives with buckets full of fresh flowers; some in season from local growers, and others imported. Most of what is available is common, but there always seems to be something I haven't seen before, or something particularly special that isn't in season yet.

Last week, I took home a few bunches of Peonies. They were quite expensive as they were imported from Holland, but they were a lovely treat. I've had them on my night table and they are taking their sweet time opening, which I don't mind at all.

This week I discovered Eriostemon. It's actually a bunch of greenery but it has delicate little white flowers on it and the most beautiful, fresh scent. It's like a hint of bright lemon.

 I think a whole bunch of cuttings look beautiful as an arrangement.  

Oliver, all cozy in his favourite spot.

This weekend we also started the hardscaping in our front yard.

Ryan and I removed the old brick pathway to the front door. It will be replaced with a flagstone pathway.

We also had all of the existing sod (or what was left of it at least) scraped off. This week new soil will be added and our gardens will be raised, and weather permitting, we will start laying our pathway. We've also finished getting some quotes for our roof. You can see how awful it is in this photo. It was our "big renovation" we were planning on doing last year... But then our furnace needed to be replaced... And then we needed to decommission our septic tank. And so it had to wait.