Photo: Storm-Blown Bougainvillea Flower Petal

This is an odd shot in the aftermath of last Saturday's severe wind and rain storm.  The storm did a lot of damage, tearing off tree limbs and uprooting trees in Phoenix/Scottsdale.

The storm also blew a cluster of bougainvillea flower petals up onto a glass window where the horizontal driving rain plastered the flowers onto the glass.  This is just an iPhone photo of this unusual, delicate remnant of the storm.

That is Mummy Mountain in Paradise Valley in the background.

This we have posted photos of some of the mountain temples of Bhutan on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Mummy Mountain

This is a photo of McCormick Ranch Lake across to Mummy Mountain, with homes creeping up the east side of the mountain.

This is a photo right after sunrise, as the soft, warm light is hitting the east side of Mummy Mountain.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site we are showing photos of the architecture of  Cambodia.

Photo: Houses creeping up the hill

This is the final installment in my little series of Paradise Valley hillside homes.  It shows how people have built newer homes higher up the hillsides.

Yes, these houses are large.  I read in the newspaper several years ago that the average size of new homes constructed in Paradise Valley was 8,000 square feet (743 sq. meters).

I would not want to keep up a house that size.  There is too much that can need repair.  I have a friend who had a large house up on Camelback Mountain.  She commented that if all the lights were on, it would take a while to walk around and turn off 300 hundred light switches.   She moved and down-sized after her husband's health deteriorated.

We are showing photos of the temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Photo: Paradise Valley hilltop home

This is a true hilltop home.  It straddles the top of a desert knoll in Paradise Valley, with views to both the north and south, although the architect included a blank wall with no windows to the west, the direction from which this photo was taken.

Perhaps the architect was trying to avoid sun coming in through the windows, but west is my favorite view because of the spectacular desert sunsets.

Tomorrow will be the final installment in my little series of Paradise Valley hillside homes.

We are showing photos of the bottom of the temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Photo: Paradise Valley hillside home

Here is another Paradise Valley hillside home, with lots of desert plants turning the hillside green.  There is a hint of a roofline even higher up the hill, as I will show tomorrow.

This home has a nice view to the south, overlooking Paradise Valley Country Club, with a backdrop of Camelback Mountain.

We are showing photos of temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Photo: Paradise Valley Hillside Home

Here is another photo of a hillside home in Paradise Valley.  This sprawling mansion hugs the hillside and has a view to the west.  Sunsets on the patio must be nice here.  The utility and tax bills are probably not so nice.

But people who can afford a house like this probably do not worry about the utility and tax bills.

We are showing photos of the bottom of the Grand Canyon on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Photo: A Problem for Hillside Homes -- White Roofs

This view of Paradise Valley, looking towards Mummy Mountain, shows one of the problems with hillside homes.

There was a lawsuit between neighbors in Paradise Valley because someone put a new white roof on their house.  The house above them sued because they said that the white roof reflected too much sunlight and was ugly when they looked down on their neighbor.

The people with the white roof won the lawsuit.  I guess this proves that life is tough when you live on a Paradise Valley hillside home and have to look down on the roofs of the homes below.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  We are showing some additional scenes of my recent Grand Canyon raft trip, as it was so unique and it is so rare to get to have this experience.

Mummy Mountain Homes

Here is another photo showing some of the homes on Mummy Mountain.  This illustrates my commentary yesterday, that it seems that people try to build higher and higher homes.

These lots offer nice views, but there is no room for yards, and it can be expensive to dig out space for a swimming pool because of the hard rock.

But if you live in a hope like this, I suspect that the cost of digging a pool is not a problem.

We have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing photos from my recent river rafting trip through he Grand Canyon.  It was quite an adventure and offered an entirely different perspective of the Canyon than views from the Rim.

Photo: Sunset over Mummy Mountain

This is a photo of the sunset over Mummy Mountain, viewed from across the north end of McCormick Ranch lake. This is a typical, clear desert sky.

I have a confession to make. My husband took this photo. I have been out of town on lots of trips lately, mostly for business, so Dave went out and took a few photos for me.

However, the story behind the photo is more interesting than the photo. Dave remained and took some more photos as it was getting dark. When he finished, he looked down to get his glasses from his shirt collar, as he can't see through the cameral view finder with his glasses. His glasses were gone.

Dave then had to look for his glasses, in the dark, without his glasses. He crawled around on the shore of the lake on his hands and knees feeling for his glasses, where hundreds of geese walk around and leave behind, well, you know.

Dave and my mother went back at sunrise the next morning and my mother's dog found the glasses. They were new glasses that cost $600, so Dave was quite appreciative. After Dave went to all of that effort, I certainly had to post the photo that he took.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week we are returning to the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to show more of the mountains. This is a unique area of volcanoes and the Andes mountains in the driest desert on earth. With all of the publicity about a little more than one year ago with the miraculous rescue of the Chilean miners in the Atacama, you should come visit our site to see how harsh the conditions can be.