A short story first. I lost my cat to renal failure five years ago. That saddened me to the point that I did not want to have another pet again.
This past Wednesday my wife was visiting past midday one of our neighbors when on her way back home she noticed a kitten walking erratically on the sidewalk. She picked her up and brought her home. She surprised me because she never wanted animals at home.
When I saw the kitten, perhaps three weeks old, I thought she will not survive. It was obvious she was tired, hungry, dehydrated and in desperate need for help. I put her in our backyard porch and fed her with milk while keeping a small container with water by her side. To my surprise she had the energy to drink some of the milk and water. She could not keep her balance, so weak she was. I guess her mother abandoned her when she was too young, perhaps at two weeks of age. Only God nows for how long she has been without care, water or food.
As I said, I did not expect her to survive but the following day she was still there. I went to the supermarket and bought her food for kittens which she devoured. She became more active and now she was walking and playing as a normal kitten is supposed to and only after 48 hours of her rescue. I heard she had a brother who apparently did not survive to thirst and starvation.
I will take her to the Vet soon in case she has parasites or other conditions that could affect her progress. I am posting one of the few pictures I snapped from her yesterday.
We have given her a name. She is Missy, the new member of our family.

The succulent, spongy world of the moss forest has always filled me with delight (see my "introduce yourself" post). It is a separate realm from the rest of the rain forest that stages a certain beauty from knee-level on up to the upper canopy. But, of course, it is certainly a link to the whole of the system. This little niche of understoried groundcover is the complete thesis of what I love about the consecrated and intensely detailed floor of the forest. My first indelible memory at about the age of ten, was of the tranquility that I was given in seeing a Wood Nymph for the first time. For me, it is a symbol of peaceful intimacy - but mostly it is a symbol of mystery.

The Wood Nymph (Moneses uniflora), sometimes called "fairy nymph" locally, is a very shy plant indeed, only about two to three inches tall, and the waxy 1/2 inch petals are always pointing their faces downward towards the loam, accompanied by all manner of mutual denizens of the dark and moist basement of the rain forest. There is no match to the fun of exploring this rich beauty on hands and knees, being careful to crawl or clamber along in a way that does not crush all of these citizens of our Earth.

This image was taken almost at dusk, when there was only a small amount of light filtering through the upper forest. The small amount of available light for making a photograph was appropriate in this case, and a tripod and long exposure time enabled me to get the shot I wanted. Actually, the muted light was welcome as it epitomized, for me, the gentle complexity of this miniature domain that never really sees the full glare of sunshine, which is of course what the Wood Nymph likes.

Of course, even in this small section of forest floor, the Wood Nymph is not alone. In actuality, the biomass of organisms is among the densest on Earth per acre. In this image, there is also a small Western Hemlock seedling, various lichens, Dwarf Bramble, Deerfoot Vanillaleaf, about three species of moss, and two species of bryophytes. The rest is not identifiable in this narrow depth of field image; however, mosses alone represent about 200+ species in this rain forest milleu.

Pentax 645
Pentax-A SMC 120/4 medium format macro lens
Velvia
1/2 second and f:4

We have two species of Hare in Scotland. The European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) and the Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus). Both are normally nocturnal but during March/April they are active during daylight as it is their mating season. The Brown Hare lives on heath and farmland. I got these shots (1 and 2) on a walk today. The Mountain Hare lives at higher elevations and it's coat turns white in winter. However the breeding season arrives before it completely loses it's winter coat making it easier to find without any snow on the ground. I got these shots earlier this week. I saw lots of dead hares on the hills!