A Busy Spring

It has truly been a busy Spring season. No one thing has caused it to be busy, it is just the amalgamation of an assortment of activities. I wake up each day wondering, where have I spent my time? Why isn’t it possible to just lie in bed. The life of the leisure class. I am a man of leisure – in theory anyway.

At the beginning of the year, I assumed a position of warden at my church, St. George’s Episcopal Church in the City of Newburgh. The building was built in 1819, in a nice restrained style befitting an Anglican congregation. I have been told the family who built my home, the Harcourts, were members of St. George’s. It seems fitting I should follow in their footsteps.

Andrew and I decided – well maybe I decided and Andrew as always graciously went along – to build a little library in the shape of St. George’s. We spent weeks constructing the library.

We used some left over plywood I had from the basement roof project.

We installed the little library on a thick oak log. A large oak by the driveway had forked branches, large branches. Last year half of the tree split and fell in a bad storm. In late April, of this year, the other half of the fork also fell in a storm. I had the landscaping company cut the log to the length we needed. Given the high cost of lumber, I thought it would be better to recycle the log, instead of buying a 4X4 from the a big box store.

We hosted a dedication and blessing of the little library after Sunday service. It is now full of books and many people in the community have been contributing. The cemetery is located in a part of the city that isn’t the best, so it is a nice addition for the residents.

Our next church project was hosting the congregation for a church picnic. We had almost 50 people who attended. With the temperature hovering around 95 degrees fahrenheit, it was a hot day. We stayed as cool as possible sitting under the large sycamore tree. Games were set up around the yard, badminton, croquet, and corn hole, but given the heat hardly anyone played.

While I am on the subject of church, I will share another project. The Reverend John Brown was rector of St. George’s for 63 years, beginning in 1815. That is quite an accomplishment. Being an Anglican priest it should not be surprising he was a very diligent and hard working man. He founded the Newburgh Horticultural Society, many churches in the area and was a leading citizen of early Newburgh. Beginning in 1815 he kept a diary. I have begun the process of scanning each of the pages of this diary.

I chose this sample page as Reverend Brown references his meeting and subsequent delivery of an address to the Marquis De La Fayette. This was no small thing at the time. The Marquis was a celebrated man. His contribution to the American Revolution made him a significant person, adored by the American populous. I have finished scanning through 1831. It will take me much of the rest of the year to finish, as I only devote one morning a week to the task.

Shifting from the church to home, Spring flowers were lovely this year. We had good rain at the right time.

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The house has several spectacular rhododendron bushes. One day I received a message from Barry Pariser asking if he and his wife Deborah could drop by. They lived in the house for almost 50 years and lovingly cared for it. Imagine my surprise when they came with a watercolor of the rhododendron bush by the garage. Barry is an accomplished watercolorist and they presented us with the painting. Such lovely people.

Back in March I took the original house plans to a paper restorer. Chris of Poster Fix in Brooklyn, New York is an expert at paper restoration. He took the tattered and torn house plans, backed them on linen and repaired them as much as possible. I was beyond amazed to see the restored plans. With the exception of a little fading, they look like new. Chris is truly an expert, even doing work for the Library of Congress. Gordon Marvel, the architect, was very detailed and the plans show not only the general house, but all the built-ins. I am extremely fortunate the plans were saved for the past 90 years. With them now restored, they should last hundreds of years more.

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Not everything taking up my time has been enjoyable. My private road, Genna Way, is barely 8 feet across in some places. In order to reach it one must drive past signs that read – Private Road (at least 3 of these), Keep Out, No Outlet and Private. Still people “visit.” Often speeding down the road, until they get to the first turn and then slow down. I have had countless arguments with people trespassing.

Two weeks ago, my neighbor sent me a text at 10:15 p.m., “Are you home or away? A tractor trailer has driven on your back yard and is stuck in the grass. I took a photo and called the Town police.” I have wonderful neighbors who look after me. Instead of going nicely to sleep I bolted outside to see what some idiot had done.

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The driver thought he would turn around in my yard. Little did he know this part of the yard is wet – year round. He immediately sunk into the grass. The driver had just been hired by the company and was learning to drive. His driving instructor was asleep in the compartment at the time. The tow truck driver estimated the truck, with it’s full load of Poland Spring water weighed 100,000 pounds. It took 4 hours to remove the truck. Needless to say, I was not thrilled about this waste of my time.

As I shared my involvement with church, I will also mention my involvement with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh. I am the Secretary for the board of directors. In addition to being on the board, I also volunteer every Wednesday afternoon at ReStore (in the morning, I volunteer at St. George’s food pantry distributing food – it is an exhausting day). I go into the ReStore through the loading dock door. Whenever they receive a donation that cannot be sold and it is made of metal it is placed into a large container for recycling. Some weeks ago as I was reporting for work, I spotted a beat up lantern. It had obviously fallen and crashed to the ground. Most of the glass had been broken, it was bent and the ceiling mount was rusty. The guys had picked it up in a bulk donation, saw the deplorable condition and tossed it into the recycle container. I pulled it out and insisted on buying it. It is solid copper and well constructed. I straightened the bent parts as much as possible and took out the shards of broken glass. Using a velcro hanger I hung it from the cherry tree by the pool. It makes an excellent hanging planter.

Finally, to end my exciting month, I am having the house painted. As I have been typing this, I have been listening to the guys scrapping and pounding away on the second floor of the house. When they move their lift I hear an incessant beeping. In the end it will be worth it.

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Painting of the front facade is nearly complete. The upstairs shutters are on order and should arrive next week. The house was previously painted only white. The shingled parts of the house are now a light grey and the trim is white. The shutters, as before, will be a rich navy blue.

I painted the front door blue to match the shutters. Which leads me to the conclusion of my look back on the past month. The door is open, come visit and see what we have done. There will always be more to do. I didn’t mention all the weeding, the vegetable garden is growing nicely, the pool is delightful on a hot day, our new trees are shooting up and there are new flowers blooming every week. Maybe I will go lie in the hammock for a while. Enjoy your summer.