OK, so you want more warm? I’ll give you more warm. It wasn’t at its hottest—it was only late May—but anything more than a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals was too much to wear.
Sunscreen and a good sun hat were absolutely mandatory for anyone exposed to the direct sun for more than a minute or two. Oh, and good sunglasses as well, of course.
Almost nothing was growing except a very few very scrubby trees and nothing was moving that I could see except for one darkling beetle (family Tenebrionidae) that was traveling so fast across the hot ground that I almost couldn’t catch a photo of it with any detail.
It’s Israel, in the Judean Desert, bordering the Dead Sea (below), which is so named because its salinity is so high (340 grams per liter) that no life forms can exist in its waters.
Among its claims to fame are that it is not only the saltiest, but also the lowest place on earth (417 meters below sea level). There. Does that help? Are you warmer now?
krikitarts 
Warmer? Most definitely, and thirsty as well.
Oh, yeah, forgot to mention a canteen as an extra essential! I appreciate your dry humor, as always.
Yup, that does the trick.
That’s what I like to hear (or, rather, read)!
The first image reminds me of the Badlands in South Dakota. It gets plenty warn there too. Interesting looking bug.
There are definitely similarities. During our recent road trip to northern California, we passed through more reminiscent landscapes in Utah and Nevada. And yes, I was so happy to see that beetle scurrying across the hot sand and rocks–I suspect that its long legs help to keep its body a bit higher where there’s more likely to be a bit of breeze.
That last shot is absolutely gorgeous, Gary.
It’s really an otherworldly landscape. I’d love to have had time to explore a lot more of the water’s edge, but unfortunately I didn’t. It is so barren that, once you get away from the swimming beach area, it’s actually somewhat spooky.
It intrigues me too.
Warm is welcome. Yesterday I returned from New Zealand to an Austin that was (and still is) barely above freezing.
I feel your transitional shock more than most. I just got back 3 weeks ago and I’m still wearing thermal underwear in the house. Welcome back.
It’s a strangely cold return. The redbud trees have already started flowering but I don’t know if their blossoms will survive the just-barely-below-freezing temperature. At least we don’t need thermal underwear in the house.