Tree Huggers

I guess I was looking for a challenge... And it was James' graduation day from Person of Interest. Their season has been going on since last July and it finally ended. Sooo! Cheesecake time.

Kind of time consuming with a lot of steps but on the whole, cheesecakemaking is not as intimidating as I first thought. I don't  have a spring form so I just used my glass pie form and made a half batch. I started by crushing 1/3 package of graham crackers. Melt 3 table spoons of butter and pour over the crackers along with 1 tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix it all together and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

The filling: 1 1/2 packets of cream cheese, 3/4 cup of sugar, pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup of sour cream, 1/3 cup of heavy cream. Put one ingredient in at a time and then beat it well.

Pour the mixture over the crust and put it in a pan with boiling water and then in the oven at 325 degrees for 1 hour. When it is done turn the oven off and crack the door an inch. Leave it like that until the oven is totally cool and then put the cheesecake in the fridge over night. 

To top it off I just put razzies and some sugar in the food processor and made a sauce. And I am not even lying a little bit when I say this is the best cheesecake I've ever had.

For lunch today we had BLT's with local bacon from Cheese Louise on Route 28 and homemade mayo. We drove up to the Woodstock area yesterday to get some trees at Woodstock Landscaping. 

 
 We ended up with a red maple.

A coral bark Maple.

And a weeping willow. This area gets really soggy because of an underground stream so the willow is going to love it!

We also looked around for bluebirds but only found this guy.

I don't think he was so happy to see us.

We've been wondering when to hang the hummingbird feeders. The trumpet vine is starting to pop and we thought we'd wait until it was a little greener. And then yesterday I looked out the window and there he was. First he went to where the feeder usually hangs and when it wasn't there he came up to the window and looked in.

He put the shame on us and 10 minutes later we had hung 3 feeders. These birds really have us on a short leash.

So I looked out the window the other morning and saw this guy. I thought I was still asleep for a second. When I realized I wasn't - we really did have a new guy visiting - I got the camera first. Guy is still hanging around. Then I got the book out. He is a rose-breasted Grosbeak and he was probably on his way up north. He stuck around all day and it was a great treat.

It's getting a little silly I know... all these feeders. And i just added two more of them. I was on a beautiful estate in Connecticut on a job last weekend and the land was not much different than ours. Tom Doyle the owner, a very cool sculptor and regular Ernest Hemingway, told me they got bluebirds. You just have to give them a house and they will come. The house has to be placed in the open. We have seen them up in the mountains and I'm gonna get'em here if I have to hunt them down, blindfold them and bring them myself. But I'm starting with some food.

James once saw an Oriole at 19 Maple Ave. We gotta just get more of them. The feeder looks like something out of fantastic planet.

They are attracted to orange and oranges and drink nectar like the hummingbirds.I'm starting to become a little self conscious about this bird thing.

Cold borscht with fixins is a definite summer favorite! 

Our rhododendrons didn't bloom for very long but they have almost doubled in size already this spring.

 

Our addition from last fall, a Kouza dogwood, is doing very well.

Azaleas and view.

This Swallowtail is enjoying our Azaleas. Please help yourself!

Backyard Explosion!

It's time to take this blog on the road again. I'm leaving for Sweden tonight and as much as I have time this blog will go from designing my dream house/cooking madness/garden porn to production journal during the shooting of a limited budget horror short film in Sweden. 

As my job in Mexico proved, filmmaking is pretty much universal but our cultural differences lend themselves to interesting and funny situations. Also I will be shooting which is still a novelty for me and I'm so ready to jump right in and create. Lovisa, the director and I see eye to eye on most things and have had a long relationship as friends, travel buddies and partners in film crime and I am super ecstatic for this opportunity to work together again. For those of you who haven't been to the Buster site (what?!) please visit cause this is what we do.

So the last post is about the yard. That decided to go crazy a few weeks ago. I think that you can literally sit and watch the knot weed grow. 

It's outrageous. But other things are growing too. This is last weekend.

And this is this weekend. With a new camera mind you, so they are looking extra FINE. Yes, I finally did it. I bought a 7D and now I fancy myself (even more of) a photographer. Who is available for your special occasions. Babies and pets and parties and you name its.

Little Hostas are thriving as well.

Inherited creeping Phlox that is getting bigger and better.

Happy happy Hydrageas. I fertilized them about a month ago and today I saw little bud clusters. Praying for big blue flowers!

The lovely dogwood tree.

Rhododendrons came into their own but the flowers only lasted about a week unfortunately. Will they bloom again? They are looking very healthy and are sprouting new leaves like crazy though.

The first Azalea to pop was the powder pink one.

Cheery cheeky pansies in a pot.

So this guy still hasn't found his way home. I think he may have moved in for good. Is anybody missing a rooster?

My cousin Åsa makes these incredible cakes and pastries (her blog here) and on her page I found a link to the ultimate pastry porn blog. Linda writes in Swedish and English and if you speak neither you can just enjoy the photos. Most of her stuff is way too advanced for me, but there was a recipe for caramel that I remember from being a kid and making Christmas candy. We tossed some together last weekend just to drown our ice cream in. Super yums.

Boil 2 deciliters of sugar until it becomes brown and bubbly. Be careful not to burn it, it will take on the taste immediately. Add 1 stick of butter cut into small pieces. Finally 150 milliliters of cream and stir until you have the perfect consistency.   

I've been obsessing about my black bean soup and decided to make that our last meal together in the house for about a month. I think it's the tastiest soup I have made so far. Buuut I always want to take the opportunity to try something new even if it's just a little side thingy and I decided on corn fritters.

They are tasty just the way they are but can stand to be more savory OR more sweet so it's what you're in the mood for.

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. baking powder
1 can of corn

Drop spoonfuls in to hot oil and fry until done. 

The hummingbirds are back with a vengeance. We saw more dudes yesterday than we saw all of last summer. They are incredible to watch.

They don't take many breaks but we've seen a lot of them perch this weekend. I would be tired too if I flew all the way from Mexico on those tiny wings.

These photos are quite bad but they are hard little buggers to catch and I have all summer to get some good shots.

I will leave you with a house for sale. This one has a twist to it! I am linking you back to one of my earliest posts so you can read about our history with this absolute turkey!

Weston Road has finally been vacated and is going for $74,000. Here's the amazing listing! Look at the photos - these people left in the middle of the night. Notice the open drawers in the kitchen and one dish glove on the counter and one on the floor. The only details missing are some raccoons going through left over garbage and a tumble weed rolling across the floor. I love how they describe it as a "summer project". Oh boy, more like all year round for many years. I CAN vouch for the amazing property though. That is what we really fell in love with. But sometimes James and I look at each other and at our beautiful house and and say "Thank gawd. Thank somebody that we didn't buy that house."

Instead we bought 19 Maple Ave. I'm at the airport and I already miss it. But on to great things!

Spring Thing

This guy just did a Maverick type fly by and scared all the sparrows off the feeder. I can't help but think they are so cool. I'm falling for the bad guy all over again. 

The bath tub alcove is built and ready for tile. It's been a long time coming but I think we may be able to take our first shower in here in about 2 weeks. Holy moly that's exciting stuff!!!

In an attempt to shape up our ratty old kitchen we had the boys build this island. We may have misjudged the measurements a little because right now we call it "the giraffe". It's a LITTLE too tall, but that's an easy fix. 

The top is butcher block from IKEA, and so are the chairs. The painting is by Rosemary and the bowl is by Kajsa.

Rosemary visited last weekend and brought goodies as usual. She finished seeeeeewing the yellow Roman shades for the bedroom! Very nice! We chatted about lots of house stuff of course and searched together for a coffee table for the living room. I hadn't seen one yet that I thought would fit, but Rosemary suggested Ballard Designs and the answer was not 1 table - but 2! We are always re arranging the living room to watch movies and be comfy and with 2 little tables we can do anything we want! Plus these are good looking and fit the space. The living room is really very done except for some art on the walls and a musical instrument OR big fish above the fire place.

Rosemary and I found an interior decorator blog that finally explained what IKAT is. It's so good I have to share it. Here again is the fabric we settled on for the pastry shop windows.

It's a print AND and a weave. And it's gorgeous.

The boys are laying the floor upstairs. 

We still haven't settled on a finish for the floor, all our testing struck out miserably so we are just going to leave it up to our floor guy, Michael.

I've posted these houses for sale before but I found the listings and thought I would share them again. The prices are TOOOOO GOOOOD. This one is on 44/55 in Clintondale.

This house is on Maple Ave.

Here's the listing for more details!

This is my favorite sign of spring!

Which means the focus is about to shift drastically around here from INSIDE to OUTSIDE. I'm ready to get dirty !

Happy spring!

1 year anniversary!

One year ago today James and I:

(A long time ago in Puerto Rico when life was simple...)

... closed on our house in Clintondale, NY.

So much  has happened and I am about to recap it all. 

Our BIG HUGE task right in the door was to install 16 new Marvin windows. It was already in the works and we had added that expense to the cost of the house. Most of the windows were only storms and one was just a garbage bag. 

New windows just in time for winter. This old lady is drafty enough without real ones so that was a smart move on these homo (wner) s' part. High five James!

Inside, the dining room was our number one priority. It was a doggy pee stinking hellhole to put it mildly. 

And this corner proved to be our first BIG challenge.

A piece of carpet left under the radiator. We tugged and pulled and puked and got it. All in the first 24 hours of homeownership. 

And to move things along. Here's the sweet afters:

No more pee corner and no more chewed off windowsills.

Table, chairs, rug and sofa are on loan from Rosemary. The white buffet is from IKEA. The shade is from Country Curtains. The paint color is Ralph Lauren: Polo Green in 2 different finishes.

Only wish I could hook you up with a virtual scratch and sniff before and after. 

Living room and dining room are joined together and we decided that if those 2 rooms got fixed up we would have enough living space to be happy once the pastry shop got torn out. They were also relatively easy to make nice. A little paint and a lotta love and whammo - homey.

So.... we stripped 3 layers of wall paper...

James tackled the knots on the ski cabin wall. We painted the bricks of the fireplace white and spray painted the doors black.

We took a break around thanksgiving and made nice for a feast.

And then we ripped it all out again to finish the floor.

The couch is from Rowe and Rosemary! The chairs are from Raymour and Flanagan. The hearth and side table are on loan from Rosemary. The coffee table is Salvation army and the rug is Lowes. Shades from country curtains. Floor lamp from IKEA. The walls are painted in Benjamin Moore: decorator white and all the trim including the wood panel wall are Benjamin Moore: dove white. The floor was sanded and stained white and then covered in a flat polyurethane. All that's left is a new rug and some art work on the walls. 

On Halloween we carved pumpkins and sat all night with a giant bowl of candy waiting for trick or treaters that never showed. But our pumpkins sure were nice.

And then it was christmas!

We spent 2 1/2 glorious weeks up here and got much done. The living room was all apart and cozy-time took place in the pastry shop.

Named so because both owners are dreamers. And one dreams of making fluffy, tasty pastries for all of Clintondale to enjoy.....

Mmmmm...

Where was I?

Oh. Yes. The blue room/long room/pastry shop/music studio is a gorgeous room that could become many things and it hosted our tree at christmas and a party on New Years. 

But after that it didn't stand a chance against Bigg Jimmy's Demolition Dang Up!

C'MON. Who gave this guy a sledgehammer?

Shortly thereafter we were introduced to the J's and since then it's been hard to keep up.

Gutting. Vapor barriers. Concrete support. New frame for the floor. Check.

Subfloor and steel beam to support upstairs bathroom.

Phew.

This is where we are today. Our dear pastry shop is the tool shed and Grand Central Station for contractors and electricians and others. Next - we insulate and sheetrock. Half of the room we be our new mudroom and half will be James' office.

Now for the upstairs... The first time we looked at the house in February 2009 "the green room" was inhabited only by a large rodent in a cage. And smelled there of. When we moved in we realized it was the most finished room in the house... Lucky us.

We started referring to it as the dead zone. We would go up there once a month, sigh, pull up a couple of floor tiles and leave. But one day the devil got into BIGG JIMMY again and things would never be the same.

This is going to become our master suite. We could only do so much demo and soon the J's took over.

No more drop ceiling. No more green. Just space and clean slates. Again, this is up to date and we are soon ready to call the insulation guys to come and spray. And then the sheetrock guys to come and sheet rock. Our goal is to get her done by christmas.

We moved right in to our temporary bedroom in September. We call it the bay window room and once the upstairs is done it will become MY office/future screening cave/additional guest room. So very little has been done to it in the past year, and once the bed moves we might give it a paint job but that's it.

The four poster bed is on loan from Rosemary and the dresser is James'. The mirror was aquired through a recent neighborly transaction, Chris got a radiator and we got this. Fits nice!

This is blogging central! The desk is from salvation army and is all the space I need.

As far as kitchen and bathroom go we have only done small improvements. Enough to be able to call it ours. Our 5 year plan includes a major renovation on both these spaces, so we only have to live with these rooms temporarily. Buuuuuut - that said - some things just HADDA GO. 

Can't really explain why these squiggly edges make me so angry. Our contractor Scott put them through a router and planed the faux country right outta them!

So from this...

To that...

Yup. That's MY kitchen.

Bathroom underwent some minor changes in the first few months.

This is the shape it was in when James and I stepped in with scrapers held high.

Walls and ceiling painted but that pink... What to do about that PINK!?!? Rosemary said: PAINT IT!

And paint it we did. Crazy toxic epoxy paint. So horrible to work with that we only got half the bathroom done, but this winter we are gearing up to finish it.

In the spring we abandoned most inside projects and started focusing on fixing the outside. It's a very large paint job and we are chugging along. This weekend I scraped and sanded 2 windows. 

Hey! There I am!

The side that has gone through the most changes is the south side. 

The changes are subtle but make all the difference!

Other highlights of this past year include a crazy snow storm that brought me back to winters of my childhood and taught us a little something about country living. It knocked our power out and gave the trees a rough shake about.

A visit from my folks in the spring!

Full of Jambalaya on the patio by the Azalea in bloom. 

And just recently a visit from my sis and Gizmo!

At the annual Ukrainian festival in Kerhonkson. About to devour some BEIGE food.

There was a lot of playtime but some work also got done. We built this bench under the sugar maple out of found stones.

And also - being able to follow along as the Gunk Haus has gotten ready to open its doors.

This must have been taken in the early spring. Now there are happy OPEN signs everywhere! What a great place and what a great thing for Clintondale!

This is our house. And next time you see it it will have some green spots and a white porch.

This spring brought us many great surprises in the yard. We realized we had inherited some beautiful greenery!

Four Azalea bushes in varying colors.

A pink Dogwood

Scilla

Star Magnolia

Oh. And this. KNOT so beautiful...

And a Maple Ave Gazette post wouldn't be complete without some bird watching. We inherited a bird feeder from the previous owner and more out of scatterbrainedness than interest we ended up leaving it in place. And I can't believe how much enjoyment we have gotten out of it. We started with one feeder and last we counted we have 8 different dining experiences for our winged friends. It's like a dang food court around here. 

So you want some highlights? Oh, alright...

It started this fall and winter with Cardinals and Juncos mostly.

Every once in a while a very shy lonely tufted titmouse...

The opposite describes these bullies!

Along came the Robins...

And the occasional woodpecker.

Red bellied woodpecker.

Downy woodpecker.

Then spring arrived and we hung finch sacks and humming bird feeders. 

With outstanding results!

And of course I have to sign off with my favorite sunset snap of the year.

But I can't pick just one so here's some more nature porn. 

Here's to another year of great changes and more lessons in country living!