"Give me a break!"Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2005

harmless fun in small installments


You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Once every three years the employees and hangers-on of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands put their lives on the top shelf of the linen closet and work begrudgingly round the clock preparing for the majestic Conference of the Parties, with next to no holidays at all for some of them, or at least one of them. Last time, in 2002, we managed to get up to a little mischief, but now, as we hurtle towards COP9 in Kampala, Uganda, in November 2005, it gets harder and harder every year to remember why we're doing this.

Anthills of the Jura

We begin the festive summer season with a collection of monumental anthills of the famous fourmis des bois, for which we are justly famous. The occasion was a BBC film crew coming down to memorialize our prodigious piles of detritus, so we've made our own little documentary in May 2005. [And subsequently added a few daunting ones from Uganda.]

"Karst and other subterranean hydrological systems, inland"

The Slovenian delegate tries to plumb the depths, June 2005

A Ramsar visit to Evian, France, and the Pré Curieux


The Col des Essets in Switzerland

The Cabane Barraud, seen from the Col des Essets on the back side of Les Diablerets, 17 July 2005


Kristin's visit, August 2005

Hikes around Les Diablerets

A fun- and rain-filled long weekend in the Diablerets region, early August 2005

Vers l'Eglise near Diablerets

Lac Retaud and Arnensee

Bretaye and Ensex in the rain


The Rawilpass at long last

Great to be back, it's been nearly twenty years, how time flies!!!

Kristin, Joe, and Teny at the Rawilpass, mid-August 2005

Jaun and Euschelspass

Iffigenalp, 2005

Blattihütte and Rawilpass


The Castle of Spiez

Adrian von Bubenberg welcoming guests to his castle on the Lake of Thun


Engstligenalp and the Ammertenpass

Kristin bobbing and weaving amongst the Wildstrubel's glaciers, August 2005


The Vanoise National Park, Haute Savoie, France

Refuge at the Col de la Vanoise, glacier on La Grande Casse

Downtown Champagny

Aiguille de laVanoise

Visit to Chambéry

A lovely long weekend, despite the weather, in nearby France


Foggy September hikes

Elke looking for mushrooms

Joe in fog again

Rob in fog again


Summer's over here in Switzerland, the chill is in the air. No more short shorts, get out the woolies; that's fine, too. Bring on the snow.

What's up next?

It's hard to tell where all this is going . . . having blown out -- for about the 10th time -- our anterior cruciate ligament ("ACL") in late September, most short-range planning is on hold. But Kristin visits in late October, one's darting off to Uganda for the first half of November and booked to visit Kristin in Boston in the second half, and then a truly dedicated effort to use up all that unused vacation time during Kristin's visit over the Christmas season. Beyond that ... well, it would be presumptuous to try to guess. "Man proposes, God disposes", which means it's pretty much up to the weather and the ligaments.

Winter 2005-2006



Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 8 October 2005, revised 5 May 2008, 29 August 2014.


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