Often it feels like Winter hangs around longer than it should. This year, I know this was the case. I compared photos of our yard from one year ago. The plants are blooming 2-3 weeks later than last year. There was some snow left in the yard, from a large pile, just two weeks ago – a hold out from the large snow that happened on February 1, 2021. A pronounced chill remains in the air, but Spring, in all it’s glory, has sprung!
While the weather has been unpredictable – nice enough to work in the yard one day and too cold the next – projects in and around the house have kept apace. Some projects were planned, while other projects arose out of necessity.
The kitchen drain decided to crack open a few weeks ago. The old two inch pipe was full of decades of build up. This rock hard build up had reduced the actual drain capacity to little more than a quarter of an inch. I had always wondered why the drain seemed so slow. Seeing the pipe after the plumber removed it, I am amazed the drain worked at all. Still the problem was nothing that five hundred dollars couldn’t solve!
Casement window 
Insulated sliding glass windows
The basement windows were little better than the drain. They were the original casement windows installed when the house was built. The frames had rusted and more than one window could not be fully closed. In winter this let in a steady draft of air that blew through the basement. In summer this provided a nice entry point for snakes to slither through the gaps. It was thrilling to go into the basement with a load of laundry and see a snake coiled near the shuffleboard table. Not the type of thrilling I usually care to experience. Fortunately, the neighbor boy likes snakes and he lovingly took him back outside; the plumber removed another. With the installation of the windows complete, I then painted the game room. The walls are now a fresh white, the windows function and there are no snakes! Next winter I will paint the other basement rooms.
Before 
After
There were two trees in the front yard of the house that needed attention – an aged willow and a blue spruce. Both were majestic trees at one time, but had reached the end of their lives. The willow had reached a precarious state. The top most branches had fallen in a winter storm and the tree seemed on the verge of collapse. When the crew came with their crane, they barely nudged it and the tree toppled. Fortunately it did not fall over onto someones car in one of the recent wind storms. The blue spruce was alive at the top, but three quarters of the tree were dead scraggly branches. The former owners have regaled me with many stories about these two trees, so no doubt they will be sorely missed – not as they recently appeared, but as they appear in their memories.
The trees a couple of years ago 
After
Trees were on our minds a lot lately. Central Hudson, the local power company decided some of the trees along the road posed a future threat to their lines, so five catalpa trees were felled along 9W. They were huge mature trees, but some of them were in imminent danger of collapsing. We will plant a few more catalpa trees to repopulate the original configuration – three lines of trees on a diagonal, and also plant Green Giant Arborvitae and Blue Spruce trees along the boundary to create a screen. We will plant fifteen trees as replacements in this area.
The electrical panels on the side of the garage were visible from the main road. In my quest to cover them up, I designed an enclosure for our garbage and recycle bins. Andrew and I built the fenced enclosure to match the nearby vegetable garden. Previously, the bins took up space in the garage. I have been reluctant to leave them outside because of the skunks, foxes, deer, and bears that roam the neighborhood looking for food.
At the back of the house is a basement entrance. I can just imagine the help in the 1930’s descending the stairs to the laundry room, so as to not go through the main part of the house. The laundry shutes would have deposited the clothes in the basement, avoiding the need to bother the family upstairs. The most recent roof to this basement entrance was nothing more than a sheet of plywood that had been stained a reddish color. It was inadequate and quickly disintegrating. I replaced it with a new shingled roof. Setting shingles is fun to me. The result is instantaneous and attractive.
Underlayment 
Completed shingle roof
A post about spring should naturally include flowers. Along with the robins that have flocked to the yard, the early bulbs are the true heralds of spring.
Miniature daffodils 
Glory of the snow
Spring also means Easter! It is such a wonderful time of year and Easter or Passover is the perfect way to celebrate the awakening of nature. I had planned a special cake for Easter. From Habitat ReStore I acquired a lovely Royal Worcester cake plate, in it’s original box. This cake plate has a design of flowers around a central gold ring. It took me five attempts to make the cake. As an entremet cake, it needed to be molded. I tried plastic bowls and metal bowls, but had no success. Finally, in Canada, I found a mold to precisely fit inside this ring. The result wasn’t as polished as I would have liked, but overall I was satisfied. Our Easter cake consisted of a white chocolate dome, a dark chocolate ribbon, vanilla and coconut cream filling, raspberries and blueberries in jelly and a cardamom flavored genoise cake base.
Molds ready to fill 
We made one for our favorite neighbors and smaller ones for other neighbors
The start of Spring has been productive, rewarding and exhilarating. Each year I write a list of projects I want to accomplish. This year, my list contains forty things I would like to accomplish. It is satisfying to look at my list and realize I have completed ten of them. With consistently warmer weather it will be easier to go through the rest of the list.
Andrew volunteered to be the Easter Bunny for church. We had a lot of fun planning the event. In the lead up to Easter Sunday we practiced by inviting our favorite neighbors to bring their son over to meet the Easter Bunny. We didn’t know how he might react, as some children see a costumed figure and scream in fright. John took it in stride, smiling and saying “the Easter Bunny.” Seeing the happiness of a child is truly one of the greatest gifts. Happy Spring!
You have been busy! We’ve replaced similar pipes- they usually fail with the ceiling of the finished basement requiring Bruce to patch the ceiling when the plumber is done. And we finally replaced the original basement window last year, but we didn’t have snakes. OMG! Your Easter cake is lovely! We had ice cream sandwiches made with either Nicole’s famous banana bread or pound cake.
Hello Gayle and Bruce,
I had another plumbing problem late last fall that was in the basement ceiling. It cost me a fortune, because the pipe was wrapped with asbestos. It cost me 10% of what I paid for my first house to have about 3 feet of pipe replaced. Asbestos abatement is expensive. The result of both repairs is that I still have a basement ceiling to fix. It is only in the laundry room, so I will procrastinate and call it a next winter project. Bruce’s skills at plastering are no doubt far superior to mine and I will need to work up to doing the repair.
Thank for the kind comment on the cake. Your ice cream sandwiches sound delicious. It never occurred to me to use banana bread to make the sandwiches. What a great idea. Spring must be lovely at your house. Enjoy!
Dear Paul & Andrew
This post just made my heart sing! Loved seeing the home improvements (nothing better than new, well-sealed windows and a drain that flows properly!); so sad about the tree failures/removals… I had severe damage to several of my specimen trees during the February ice storm in Portland, OR – and my beautiful 100′-long arborvitae privacy hedge went from a lofty 15′ to a scraggly 10′. My backyard will take a few years to feel like a “secret garden” again 🙁 And I don’t know when I’ll get over the damage to my 10-yr-old Acer pensylvanicum. It lost its main leader – and a secondary branch that could have been a new leader! He’s a bit lopsided now but I have faith in his perseverance 😉
Spring bulbs – sweetest harbingers of the end of winter…
Your Easter cake! Please share the recipe if you can – I love all of the flavors you’ve included in it. And so pretty on that plate. Brought back memories of childhood when mom would deck us out in Easter bonnets (hats!) for church…
Andrew as Easter Bunny! I’m sure he was as much of a hit at church as he was with young John!
What I would give for fun-loving, fantastic neighbors like you two 🙂 You’re the best!
Thanks for sharing your Spring with us!
Colleen
Hello Colleen,
Thank you for your kind note. I am sorry to read of the damage to your trees. We have had several storms over the past 3 years that have impacted our trees as well. I know the disappointment of waking up and finding the landscape changed. Trees can be resilient, so I hope your Acer will recover. We also planted a screen of arborvitae and hope it will make our yard more private. We planted 2 foot trees in the spring of 2019. Some are about 8 feet tall. It would be devastating to see them damaged.
Spring in Oregon is surely lovely. I have seen many gardening photos from there. The lack of snow must make it much easier to garden.
Thank you for your kind words about dessert. I made up part of the recipe – sort of my Signature Challenge (thinking of the Great British Bake Off).
Here is the recipe:
I start with the jelly – because I want it to firm up while I am making the other components.
Jelly:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup mixed fruit (I have used raspberries, strawberries and blueberries – acid fruit – orange and lemon were more difficult to set)
1 tablespoon agar agar (I am vegetarian, so use this, but you could use gelatin)
red food coloring
Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan on high heat. Stir and bring to a boil. Let boil for 3-5 minutes, until the agar agar and sugar are dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool closer to room temperature. Using a bowl, slightly smaller than the opening of the base of the mold, place the fruit in the bottom of the bowl. Pour the liquid over the fruit and place the bowl in the refrigerator. With agar agar this is usually set within about 20 minutes.
Genoise
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 heaping tablespoon cardamom (I have also made this with vanilla and one time with lavender)
Preheated oven to 340 degrees F
Fill a medium sized pan with water half way. Place a heat proof bowl in the pan, but not touching the water (I use a stainless steel mixing bowl that fits about an inch into the top of the pan). Put the eggs and the sugar in the bowl. Heat the water, but not to boiling. Place the bowl in the pan. Using a handheld mixer, beat the eggs until they have tripled in volume. They should be a very light yellow and the consistency should be what is described as “ribbon” stage.
Sift the flour and the cardamom into the egg mixture. Folding the flour gently into the egg so as to not reduce the volume. Add the flour in stages. Using a parchment paper lined baking tray, gently pour the cake mixture into the tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow the cake to cool enough to work with it. Using a plate, or some form, cut a circle the same size as the bottom of your mold. Set the circle of cake aside.
For the filling:
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1 teaspoon corn starch
Using a stand or handheld mixture, beat the cream cheese, cornstarch and sugar until it is creamy. Add the whipping cream and the vanilla. Whip the cream until it is thick and can hold stiff peaks.
For the Chocolate Shell
1 cup chocolate – divided (I used white chocolate, but dark would also work)
Fill a medium sized sauce pan with water about 1/3 full. Place a heat proof bowl on top of the pan – it should not touch the water. Heat the water to boiling. Place 3/4 cup of the chocolate in the bowl. Using a candy thermometer, heat the chocolate to 110 degrees F. Remove the pan from the burner (not all of the chocolate will be melted). Place the remaining 1/4 chocolate in with the melted chocolate. Stir vigorously until all is melted.
Put the melted chocolate into the bottom of the mold. Using a spoon or a spatula, smooth the chocolate up the sides of the mold, making sure it is entirely covered and not too thin. Allow to set.
Assembly:
Fill the chocolate covered mold with the whipped cream to about 2/3 full. Remove the jelly from the bowl. Place the jelly on the whipped cream, centering it within the mold. Fill the sides of the mold around the jelly with the whipped cream and cover the cover the jelly with the whipped cream – using all the remaining whipped cream. Place the circle of cake on top of the whipped cream. Place the filled mold in the refrigerator to set firmly.
To serve, invert the mold and remove the chocolate domed cake.
For the ribbon, I cut freezer paper strips to the length I needed – 1 strip around the cake, strips for the bow and two strips for the ends. Melt chocolate to 110 degrees F, just as before. Spread the chocolate on the shiny side of the freezer paper using the flat edge of a knife or other utensil – I use a cake spreader. Wrap the base of the cake with the longest strip. Fold the smaller strips back to make the ribbon. For the ends I draped them over a glass tumbler laying on it’s side to give a curve. Allow to set. Gently peal off the paper. Using some melted chocolate as glue, carefully place the ribbons in position. The chocolate decoration is thin and the heat of your hands will quickly melt it, so it is necessary to work quickly.
It seems like a lot of work, but the recipes are simple and it doesn’t take long. Enjoy.
Paul,
As ALWAYS, I absolutely LOVE reading about my childhood home/property and SO appreciate your care and concern with them. Your sense of aesthetic is wonderful.
Warmly,
Amy (Pariser) Wexler
Hello Amy,
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. It is a gift to be in touch with you and your family. The magnolia tree is just starting to open. In the next week or so it should be in full bloom. I remain indebted to everyone who has cared for the property before me.
Kind regards,
Paul