The pink blooms cascading down our creek bank belong to the evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). It's not just pretty, thought. It's an all-around useful plant.
I've read that the leaves can be cooked like greens--maybe I'll add them to the next batch of kale. The roots can be boiled like potatoes and are said to taste like parsnips (if anybody remembers what those taste like). I've used the flowers in salads and as a garnish, and steamed the young seedpods like peas. Some have roasted the seeds (15 min. at 350°) for use on bread or in salads. It's been used by native herbalists to treat asthma, eczema, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and circulatory problems; and by modern herbalists,to treat premenstrual stress. This year, it's everywhere in large pink colonies, and beautiful. We love to see it in our meadows and pastures, but it might be too much of a good thing if this were in my garden.
A teaching weekend coming up: looking forward to leading a women-only writing workshop in Fredericksburg, a pretty Texas Hill Country town northwest of San Antonio. I'm looking forward to seeing fields of bluebonnets, paintbrush, and winecups on the drive down--oh, and more primroses. The forecast is for rain, but I'm sure that won't dampen our spirits.
Book report. Lots of things happening right now. If you're a NetGalley reviewer, you can download a review copy of A Plain Vanilla Murder (launch: June 4). The e-galley will
If you're a friend of Ruby Wilcox, you can preorder her first solo adventure, NoBODY (an ebook novella, the first in a trilogy) on these platforms: Kindle, iBook, and Nook. The launch date for the book is April 15. Books 2 and 3 in the trilogy (SomeBODY Else and Out of BODY) will launch May 15 and June 15.
In reply to a couple of questions: yes, all three of these books are finished, formatted, and ready to launch. Each one is about half the size of your usual mystery (about 135 pages). Each is a standalone but all three are linked, with a strong character arc connecting all three books. I love the covers, which look pretty simple but took a lot of tinkering.
This is my first experiment in this form, and I'm glad for the digital technology that makes it possible. It's so much easier to publish digitally, and while I'm planning to continue the two print series (China Bayles and the Dahlias), I want to do more fiction in this short form. It requires some discipline from me, since I'm used to letting the story go where it wants to and take whatever time it needs to tell (which is why some of the China Bayles books are 90,000 words long--very long for a mystery).
These novellas aren't "cozy," either, although the characters come from a series that has been labeled "cozy." But not by me. China Bayles is lots of things--but she isn't cozy.
Reading note. I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.--Katherine Anne Porter