Let $f$ be a classical newform of weight $2$ on the upper half-plane $\mathcal H^{(2)}$, $E$ the corresponding strong Weil curve, $K$ a class number one imaginary quadratic field, and $F$ the base change of $f$ to $K$. Under a mild hypothesis on the pair $(f,K)$, we prove that the period ratio $\Omega_E/(\sqrt{|D|}\Omega_F)$ is in $\mathbb Q$. Here $\Omega_F$ is the unique minimal positive period of $F$, and $\Omega_E$ the area of $E(\mathbb C)$. The claim is a specialization to base change forms of a conjecture proposed and numerically verified by Cremona and Whitley.

Let $\FF$ be an orthonormal basis for weight $2$ cusp forms of level $N$. We show that various weighted averages of special values $L(f \tensor \chi, 1)$ over $f \in \FF$ are equal to $4 \pi c + O(N^{-1 + \epsilon})$, where $c$ is an explicit nonzero constant. A previous result of Duke gives an error term of $O(N^{-1/2}\log N)$.