May 17th

Thursday, May 17th, 2018

I never imagined that I would be this excited about photographing a skunk.

But folks, I am so pumped!

My neighbors have gorgeous apple trees, all in peak bloom right now, so I wandered down there this morning to photograph them. My neighbor, Jeannie, came out to greet me, and to warn me about the skunk in their backyard.

So naturally, Courtney peeks around the corner of the house, sees the pretty light, and runs for her camera and toward the skunk.

Skunks have an exceptional sense of smell and hearing, but very poor eyesight. They can only see about 10 feet, hence the reason they rely on their spray as protection. However, this guy was not concerned about me at all. Out for breakfast, happily scrounging around for bugs and worms.

In fact, he acted as if I wasn’t there at all (although I’m sure he heard and smelled me), until I whistled at him, hoping to get him to lift his head and look toward me. Instead, he hustled into the tall grass, and into the protection of the trees.

Once he left, I came back to my main objective: the blooms.

I don’t know about all of you, but the blooms I’ve seen this spring have just been spectacular. Trees absolutely full, bursting, with blooms.

These didn’t disappoint.