Day 78: Thursday, May 5

Hoping to paint today. Want to paint a portrait of Suzanne McDermott based on her photo of herself with all her jewelry on. And then I'd like to ask permission of Carol Marine to post it as a "challenge self portrait". Suzanne took such a horrible fall a couple of months ago and is still not "back together".  I emailed Suzanne Carol's challenge for this month on the DailyPaintworks site telling Suzanne that she should paint the wonderful hand with all the jewelry........she said she still wasn't up to it.............Or maybe? Maybe people who are reading this blog could paint it for Suzanne and we'll just inundate her with our paintings of her hand and her jewelry and give her a bit of a perking up!  If you think you might be interested in doing that? Let me know and we'll band together to make her happ(ier).

Here's the photo I'm talking about.  I love it. The repose, the color of the sweater, no face just that hand, languid...........Give it a try and let me know.

And a final note on the skunks: Had left the Have-A-Heart trap out behind the garage thinking I'd deal with it tomorrow, kinda like Scarlett O'Hara........ so Monday  morning I take a look and lo and begorrah! There's a giant skunk in the cage. Go inside. Call the Humane Society. Tell them I have the momma skunk for those 5 live babies they have, Humane Society lady tells me that it isn't the momma because momma skunks do not leave their babies and go to Vegas like humans.......She says it's a totally different skunk but that she'll be out to deal with it momentarily.  Fifteen minutes later, she arrives, creeps up on the cage, drops a bedsheet over it without startling the skunk, picks up the cage, walks across the street in front of our house, to the edge of the canyon, opens up the trap, skunk walks out, skunk crosses the street, skunk goes right back up the next door neighbor's driveway to the rear of the house and is back in position within 15 minutes.

For what did I call the Humane Society I'd like to know!! I thought they'd at least take him a block or two away!!

So skunk saga is over. Yesterday I hired a repairman who put wire with small holes over the existing hole-y fence behind the garage.  The skunks are gonna have to learn how to climb to get into our yard again!