Evening Primrose and Flight of Dreams

Garden Notes

This week's star native is evening primrose. The particular species I planted last year is Oenothera howardii (Howard's evening primrose), which is a Colorado native. It didn't bloom at all last year, but it started last week and is stealing the spotlight with its vibrant trumpet-shaped flowers. 

One of the things I love about it is that it requires very little water but looks lush and tropical. All of the descriptions in books and online say that it blooms in the evening and overnight (good for nighttime pollinators), but mine bloom all day long!

Apparently, the entire plant is edible and has played an important part in indigenous medicine. I found some online instructions that detail how to make evening primrose oil from the blossoms, but I think I have enough on my plate right now before I even think about going down that path!

Isn't she a beauty?

 I am growing it to support the local ecosystem, and its beauty is my reward.

Book Notes

Flight of Dreams, by Ariel Lawhon - this is a 2016 novel by one of my favorite authors. I loved her The Frozen River and Code Name Hélène and was completely enthralled with Flight of Dreams. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

On the evening of May 3rd, 1937, ninety-seven people board the Hindenburg for its final, doomed flight to Lakehurst, New Jersey. Among them are a frightened stewardess who is not what she seems; the steadfast navigator determined to win her heart; a naive cabin boy eager to earn a permanent spot on the world’s largest airship; an impetuous journalist who has been blacklisted in her native Germany; and an enigmatic American businessman with a score to settle. Over the course of three hazy, champagne-soaked days their lies, fears, agendas, and hopes for the future are revealed.

The novel takes place from the moment of takeoff to the aftermath when the survivors are still struggling to deal with the fact that they did survive. Yes, there were survivors--62 out of the 97 did survive the explosion and resulting fireball that consumed the German airship. 

Interesting Fact: The Hindenburg survival rate was 64% while that of the Titanic was only 32%.

It took everything I had not to read about the Hindenburg disaster until after I finished the book because virtually all of the characters were actual passengers or crew aboard the airship, and I didn't want any spoilers. The author did say that she invented the various story threads that connect the various characters, making for a rich, interesting, realistic, and compelling (i.e., nail-biting) fictional account of the final voyage of the airship.

What I found super interesting is that the term airship is totally appropriate--everything was nautical except they were going through air instead of water. I would love to see even a scale model of the interior. Flying on the Hindenburg, or on other airships, was really the height of luxury travel in the day. Unlike the Titanic, there was no steerage or 2nd class--every passenger ticket was a first-class ticket.

This is one of those books I practically couldn't put down--Lawhon is an exceptionally good histoirical novelist, using real events and real people to catapult her into a marvelous story that really could've happened. Another 5-star novel from Lawhon.

Now, I am wondering about her novel I Was Anastasia. I don't buy into conspiracy theories and have never embraced the idea that Anastasia Romanov escaped the fate of the rest of her family, but I trust Lawhon to tell a good story based on known facts...so maybe?