to a shop selling good smelling things, like potpourris, incense, essential oils, and herbs, spices, and teas?

Think about it.

Yup. Pepe le Pew moved in under the shop this weekend. Lady Raven heard a lot of movement below the floor boards Saturday night, so she got up and started stomping around loudly to scare off the raccoon or possum she figured had moved in.

Then she heard more stomping from below, and she escalated.

Oops.

Then the spray happened. So. What to do? Well, Raven's Nest does custom blends, which means there's always some that turn out to be just awful, so she poured those between the floor boards, to fight rank with stink.

By the time I got there, no one else could smell anything, but she was still nauseated (You must remember that Lady Raven is a Nose, with training in France, in the perfume industry. Skunk is foul, and it's multiplied for her.) The shared stage for the Lost Boys and the Birds of Prey is next to us, so I left word with one of the Lost Boys for Steve Hoddy, the falconer, to PLEASE come over. Steve's deals with all sorts of wildlife, not just feathers, and has a Velcro brain for that sort of thing. Sure enough, he remembered a Mythbusters success recipe to counteract skunk spray, and she had the ingredients. She mixed it all together and poured it between the boards. Success!!

We did have a brief fright, when a baby was squalling loudly, and a *whiff* arose, but that was just a comment, we think.

Lady Raven will get faire management to check in to skunk removal services, and we hope all is back to normal for the second Kids' Day Thursday. Sheesh.

(And no, I don't mean the bizarre weather we had opening weekend of GARF)

Young man in kilt in our shop today, kilt a little too short, with long silvery shorts showing several inches below. Lacking the courage of his convictions, perhaps?

And, thanks to tempest_gypsy the Nickel Shakespeare Girls came up to Raven's Nest and gave us our very own performance!! They asked what I wanted to hear, since acrobatics are out of the question inside our shop, so I asked for something that they seldom get to do, so one of them did the St. Crispin's Day speech. I had chillbumps. Then, outside, they did a hilarious all-at-once of Puck's speeches. The bunch of them are too cute for words, and they should be seen and enjoyed while they're at GARF. I happened to have a pass to the Shakespeare Tavern with me (I earn them at mailings), so I tipped them with it. Hope they get a chance to come -- Taming of the Shrew is on the next several weeks.

All in all, a perfect day. The weather was warm but not sticky or stifling, with a lovely breeze. gypsyariana came up to say Hello, and Anne Boleyn came in for a custom scent, which we've named Greensleeves. I stuffed 13 mousies, and was loopy from catnip. (Ginger is a good antidote).