I read from the book I’m in Charge of Celebrations, but I could have read from many others. If you live in Tucson or in the desert nearby then Byrd Baylor’s novel Yes is Better Than No is required reading. I’ve included a photo of our tattered copy from the late 1970s. It was republished in 1990 and illustrated by Leonard Chana, which makes it a wonderful copy to have as well.
I had a few chances to chat with Byrd over the years and every time was special. In the early 1990s I wrote a radio episode about Fremont wolfberry plants blooming on A Mountain near downtown Tucson. Byrd told me when she heard it she immediately drove to A Mountain to find them. I swooned.
Anyway, I guess that’s all. Byrd Baylor loved the desert and lived a long life. How lucky for us we had her. Below is a link to a nice piece by Tony Davis in the Tucson newspaper that may be of interest.
There are many nations and languages found in the borderlands. The photos are mine.
The art is by Cicely Mary Barker. Friend Kat Armstrong sent it my way. Bless her heart. I had forgotten that fairies gather acorns...
Velvet mesquite is the predominate native mesquite of southern Arizona. If you go west toward California, you will start running into western honey mesquite...