Tuesdays With Tracy May Musings

Hello Friends,

So nice to be visiting The Tattered Pew.  I’m Kelly’s mom and I’m so happy you can join me for some “May musings”.

I am thinking of the old saying “April showers bring May flowers” and it is beginning to happen here in Colorado. 

Today is the first day without clouds or rain and everything is greening up beautifully as you can see from our living room window.

Our Garden

There are two things blooming in my garden so I am doing the happy dance!  Kelly used to have Viburnum bushes in her yard and I liked them so much that I planted a couple.

A dear friend gave me some of her divisions of Brunnera Jack Frost. I just love the veining in the leaves and the tiny blue flowers!  

Next month I will probably over show my Peonies so bear with me. I absolutely love flowers and Peonies are probably my favorites.  I sometimes dream of being in Paris and visiting flower shops to see all the beautiful Peonies.

A Favorite of Mine

One of my favorite photographers is Georgianna Lane and I have several of her books on flowers and cities.  Currently on my coffee table is her book on Hydrangeas.

Here are links to some of her books

I love Hydrangeas and have a few Annabelles in the garden.  I tried the Endless Summer Bloom variety of Hydrangeas but they were a flop in my garden. I haven’t seen them in any gardens here in Colorado but the nurseries always sell them.  Buyer beware, ha!   They probably do better in the south. 

Kelly has Annabelles planted in a hedge against the house in her front garden and boy are they beautiful!  

Pasta Salad Recipe

Below is a favorite pasta salad recipe of ours.  I found this in a British magazine, Country Homes and Interiors that I picked up in the airport on our way home from England a few years ago.  You can see in the photo of the recipe that I adjusted the measurements from the metric.

Pesto and Mozzarella Pasta Salad

Pesto and Mozzarella Pasta Salad

16 oz penne pasta

¼ cup olive oil

2 @ 10 oz cherry tomatoes 

¾ cup basil pesto

12 oz mini mozzarella balls

Large handful of basil leaves

Salt and pepper

1 Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente.

2 Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan over moderate heat.  Add the cherry tomatoes and a little seasoning, and fry for 5 minutes or until the skins start to blister.

3 Drain the pasta and toss with the tomatoes and pesto. Leave to cool, then cover and chill.

4 When cool, mix in the mozzarella balls and basil leaves.  Season to taste and serve.

Notes:  makes approximately 4 dinner servings.  I usually cut the little mozzarella balls in half so there are more pieces. You can use homemade basil pesto or store bought. I use a jar from Costco and freeze the unused pesto.  This is good the next day for leftovers.

 And… totally unrelated… since flowers and food start with “F” let’s keep it rolling with “feet”.  I am always looking for reasonably attractive comfortable shoes.  My old feet need padding and comfort.  I just got these and love them. I will wear them with dresses, pants, and shorts.

More “May musings”…

As I’m thinking about house projects for the summer, I remembered one I did with Kelly’s help a couple of summers ago. 

Remember last month in the Tuesdays With Tracy blog I talked about having touches of the color black in my home.  If you missed it you can see the April edition here.  Well the below before and after photos show a chair reupholster project that Kelly helped me with.  

This is the before…

When we started pulling off the black fabric, underneath was the original fabric from 1990. It was a charcoal black floral.  Hmm… I clearly had a thing for black. Ha!

Well, I ordered some blue toile fabric, slapped the chair up on the kitchen table and started the upholstery makeover.  (Keep in mind that I have never reupholstered a chair before so I had to read lots of tutorials and then just go for it!)

This is the after…

I found this chair while shopping with my mother in a shop in Los Gatos, CA so I am rather attached to it.  I can still fondly remember our conversation as I was debating whether or not to buy it. It originally had peach fabric.  

The ticking stripe on the footstool is also on the back of the chair.  The footstool originally belonged to my mother.  I have no doubt that she would love the blue toile and the ticking stripe. (You can see how we recovered it here!) I was blessed to have a wonderful mother and my sister and I miss her every day. 

Flowers, Food and Chairs with Footstools

So I’ve covered flowers, food, and chairs with footstools in my “May musings”.  I would love to have  you join me in June for some summer garden  updates and more. You can see all of my previous Tuesdays With Tracy here!

We have a big family trip in June.  We try to go somewhere every other year with the kids and grands.  So stay tuned, God willing,  I will be over sharing my peonies and family photos next month! Ha!

I must have flowers, always, and always.

Claude Monet

I’m praying your April showers have brought you lots of May flowers!

Love,

Tracy