Rainforest: A forest in the rain....

You might think I'm lying when I tell you that this is within four and a half miles of downtown Vancouver B.C., Canada's third-largest metropolitan region, but it's true.

And not only are the clouds almost kissing the treetops, there's rivulets of rainwater running down streets and driveways, the half-dead lawns are happily soaking it up, and the usual scavenging crows around the neighborhood have this morning been replaced by an occasional Steller's Jay, flitting from tree to tree, or balcony to balcony of the building. These birds seem to like starting at the bottom, and working their way up a tree or a building, and then starting again on the next. It's their way of doing a systematic search for goodies.