Byrd Baylor's text captures and shares some of the special experiences
in the Southwest desert country that have inaugurated her private
celebrations: The Time of Falling Stars, in the middle of August, when
"every time a streak of light goes shooting through the darkness, I feel
my heart shoot out of me"; Rainbow Celebration Day, marking the time
she and a jackrabbit stood together watching a triple-rainbow over a
canyon; and the real New Year's Day (January first is "just another
winter day"), the day spring begins. "I celebrate with horned toads and
ravens and lizards and quail...And, Friend, it's not a bad party."