Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Wild Flowers

I have backpacked up in the Bernese Oberland section of the Swiss alps on several different occasions.

Once we climbed the peak directly across the valley from the North Face of the Eiger.
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This is what the North Face brand of camping and cold weather gear refers to.

On the way up we camped in a lush alpine meadow just filled with wild flowers.
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And then the next day we got up into the tundra which is weird and beautiful.

The desert does not have nearly as many wild flowers, but it is surprising how much life there is in the desert. I have tremendous admiration for the plants and animals that live in the desert. I took all of these pictures this morning in the desert within a couple of miles of my house.

Temperatures of 40 degrees C are not all out of the ordinary, and it is not especially rare to go six months with no rainfall at all. You have to be really tough and specialized to be happy living in the desert.

My house is less than 3 years old, so it has the latest in insulation and energy saving features.
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It has low emissivity glass in the windows and triple pane glass. It has a white elastomeric coating on the roof to help reflect the sun’s rays, and white roll down shutters to keep the sun’s rays from reaching the windows. Both of my cars have good air conditioners, and yet I am already feeling the heat. And it is only 90 degrees F.