:: L. x intermedia 'Grosso' ::

This weekend we have been on a little jaunt over the hills to Okuti Valley on Banks Peninsula to visit some dear friends and stay over in our wee pop-up camper trailer.

 Just home and the light is fading and the weather rather damp still, so I'm glad I had a couple of flowers up my sleeve - photos I took while it was beautifully sunny on Friday.

 Our front garden is gradually getting a makeover, changing it from a leggy, unkempt hedge of mis-matched odds and sods of plants to a mediterranean perennial garden of both food and flowers.  Two types of plants have been allowed to remain - the roses and these fragrant 'grosso' lavenders. 
Currently, the lavenders are having their moment in the sun, waving their deliciously-scented heads along the fenceline in great swathes of soft purples and violets.

 This is our second Summer here and like last year I intend harvesting the flowers to dry. Sometime during the Autumn/Winter, however, when I have sourced replacement plants these lovelies will be surrendered to our compost/hen yard, as like many of the other original plants, they are leggy, woody and mishappen and quite frankly well 'past it'.

Right now, though, I am thoroughly appreciating their beauty and loving seeing the high number of honey and bumble bee visitors they are constantly receiving.