This is a picture of the little lake I came across when taking one of my first walks behind our new property.
Exploring our new surroundings is one of my favorite things to do after a move, and so far I'm liking what I see.

The neighbor's property next door used to be a nursery, where they grew a large variety of plants and trees, but since they moved to a larger area they are renting out the land to someone who uses it to grow a different crop each year.
Last year it was garlic, which you can still smell when the wind comes from a certain direction, and this year it's clover and grass/hay.
A small pathway is left at the sides, perfect for walking around the fields ..

After about 20 minutes I reached the lake (from the picture above) and another 10 minutes later, here's looking back at it from the other side ..

Eventually I'll reach the road we're on, Kings Grade, that brings me back to our place, which you can just make out there in the distance ..

Besides spotting the Canadian geese there in the lake above, I was accompanied for a while by a couple of loudly screaming Red-tailed hawks who were flying quite low over my head, circling and swooping  ..



In one of a couple of small groupings of tall trees I passed I discovered the reason why ...

I'm not sure if this is one of the adults or a rather large chick,
almost ready to fledge?

 

But lets get to the most exciting news of this post already ... THIS happened!

              

Yes! He passed! And on his first try, whereas statistically 1 in 3 people fail!
I'm so proud of him and we're so happy that this whole ordeal is finally behind us!
No more studying! Yahoo!
And to top it off, only 8 hours later an e-mail confirmed that his license was issued, which usually takes 2-3 days. (He'll get a hard copy over the mail in a couple of days)

So, time to celebrate! Open the champagne! Have some deviled eggs!
Which we did ...

           


But, no rest for the wicked, James already worked on some of our bartering hours by doing a little welding on a broken down lawn mower ..

    

A little grinding of the welds and some touch up paint and it was good to go!

We've also worked on 'bushwhacking' an area at what is going to be our permanent spot, which is overgrown with ivy and blackberries:

               

Believe it or not but I've actually done most of it (James was still studying at the time), but there was nobody around to take a picture so James is of course taking all the credit ..

And look what I found at Home Depot the other day:                                                   

                                                       

I was looking for a hanging basket to hang from my awning as I do every year but I just couldn't get over the $29.95 price-tag! I know, I'm a cheapskate, but seriously? 

Bimart had some for $19.95 just before Mother's-day but they were sold out by the time I could get there.
So, when we ended up at Home Depot for something else, I wandered over to their plant section, only to find the same $29.95 prizes.
But than a very friendly cashier pointed out a rack with priced down plants that didn't look that good anymore, or were a little past their prime ... for $5! Ha!
I picked one of the best looking ones (and another $16.95 pot of petunias for the same $5), and after deadheading them a little after I got home they turned into fine looking plants! Score!

Well, that was about all for now. Here's a last pic of James making pancakes and bacon (and eggs to follow) for breakfast.
The weather is absolutely perfect at the moment with temps around 74-82 so the BBQ gets a lot of use again!