I’m back from speaking at the Tucson Festival of Books with their 100,000+ attendees and incredible roster of authors. Early one morning, I circled back to the Mission Garden, one of the special “microwilds” featured in THE LIGHT BETWEEN APPLE TREES.

I was smitten all over again and returned in the evening to watch the sun set over the garden, at the base of Sentinel Peak. For some moments, it was just me and a pair of Gambel’s quail in the medicinal garden. The birds seemed to confer with each other about my unexpected presence and pondered before skittering away.

The news is troubling all around but Spring is here. In Santa Fe, the apricot trees are in bloom though it’s easy for blooms to wither in this heat. Chatting with kids, I gather that “wither” is a word of the moment. Many of them say they are “withering.”

Fortunately I withered only once in Tucson while walking over to the festival’s Science Tent in the dead heat of day. Otherwise I drew succor from fellow book lovers and the stunning murals around town — at a Latin restaurant and the airport.

Grateful to Yale Climate Connections for highlighting THE LIGHT BETWEEN APPLE TREES in 12 climate reads for Women’s History Month

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