Mysteries and Stories Can Be Surprising

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 31 Comments

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. ~Julia Cameron

Another mystery has come and been solved – by some of you. When I posted Sunday’s mystery photo, I wasn’t sure whether it would be easy or hard. Whichever it was for you, I loved the guesses. Some were very fun. Ann threw up her hands and gave up guessing anything, but she still gets an entry in my giveaway. You have to admire honesty. Susan and Nancy said sponges. I thought maybe more of you would guess that. I might have. Then cheese was a nice guess. Could have been Swiss cheese. I loved the rice krispie guesses. Made me want to go buy some rice krispies and marshmallows. I love those sweet treats.

I had to look at it again when Marji admitted being stumped but saw a dog’s head, a stinkbug and a ducky with a hat in the picture. She had to clue me in on the ducky but once she said where, I saw it too. Rock salt was guessed by a couple of you and ice and water. Lavon thought it was one of the flowers all decked out with frost that I sometimes share on Facebook. Jeanie saw a countertop. That was a great guess. Wrong but still a great guess. Laura saw froth on coffee and Lee saw melted candle wax. That was better than the ear wax Lisa saw. LOL.  Carol saw tapioca pudding and Briana guessed Little House on the Prairie popcorn balls.

Love how all of your imaginations work. Dorothy saw clouds. I was so taken with her guess, I took a picture of some clouds today, but even after I pulled out a little of the picture, it still looked like a cloud. No mystery to it.

Many of you were very close to right with your English muffin, french bread, biscuit guesses. And Suzanne, Pamela, Linda R., Sandra, and Roberta were exactly right with bread. Suzanne and Linda R a little more exact than the others when they said homemade bread. Yes, I was fixing breakfast and wondering about a mystery photo. So I snapped a picture of my toast. Maybe the exactly exact guess would have been toasted homemade bread. LOL. Liz did add butter to her English muffin guess.

I’ve been making sourdough bread for years. I don’t know how many years but my kids think it must be over thirty. When people started passing the bread starter around all those years ago, I said I didn’t want to do that. But then I did. I found out it wasn’t that much trouble and it tasted really good. So I buy flour and use my sourdough starter and don’t buy bread anymore. It makes yummy toast. Toast that can look like a lot of other things if you make a little bit of it bigger that normal and stir in some imagination. Not to mention that duckie with a hat in the lower right corner.

So thank you all for making the game so fun. I have a new mystery photo up top. I think this one is going to be hard but usually when I think that, it turns out to be easy. If you leave your best guess in a comment here on the post, you’ll get an entry in my book giveaway. Each time you guess on a new photo, you get a new entry. I’ll pick three winners who will get their choice of one of my autographed books. You have to be at least 18 to enter. Deadline for entries is June 6, 2023 at midnight EST. I’ll contact the winners via email and announce their first names on my June 7th post.

I’ve got a giveaway going in the newsletter I sent out last week. If you didn’t get one, let me know and I’ll send one out. If you’re signed up from my newsletter, it might have gone in your spam folder. Also if you sign up for my newsletter, you have to respond to an email asking you to confirm that yes, you’re sure you want to get my newsletters.

Good News for When the Meadow Blooms

You may have already seen my good news on Facebook or Instagram, but I made this cute graphic. I wanted to share it again. 🙂 My book, When the Meadow Blooms is a finalist for long historical novel in the Faith, Hope and Love Award. So exciting. I just know Calla and Sienna would be jumping up and down and clapping to know their story is touching hearts.

All right. I’m ready for your guesses on Mystery Photo #3. 

Thanks so much for making my Mystery Photo Game so much fun.

Comments 31

  1. Post
    Author

    You guys are cracking me up with this one. Maybe I did make this one too hard, but I love how you are willing to stretch your miaginations to give it a try. I will tell you Una has a right guess. She says it’s something green. LOL. Love it, Una.

    Thanks to you all for the congratulations on When the Meadow Blooms being a finalist in the Faith, Hope & Love Awards. So appreciated.

    Sarah, Terri, Mary, Lana, Ann – I could have bought some green cookware. They make it in all colors these days.

    Thanks, Ann, for the congratulations and I’m so glad you are having fun playing the mystery photo game.

    Suzanne and Paula – I can totally see the old tin toys you’re imagining. My dad had one that had a green round part. So, could be. And yes, Paula, I may have made this one too hard.

    Dana, it could definitely be a leaf and a stem. A sort of odd colored leaf but things look different when you’re trying to make a mystery photo.

    Angie, I like how you think. Cookie or cake and now we need to go find a sugar cookie with green St Patrick’s day icing.

    Susan and Lana again, a strainer or colander, hmm. Interesting.

    Hope, Nancy, Josephine – a wheel on a cart of toy or table. I used to have a greenish tin typewriter table. It had wheels. So, maybe.

    Lisa, a praying mantis. That has to be the most imaginative guess yet. Love it.

    Pamela, kiwis are certainly green. Thanks for the congratulations. And no wonder you got the last one right. You’d seen that sourdough bread you made.

    Amy, I love the way you think too. I could probably have some fun making paw print garden stones. I have a couple that my grandkids made with their footprints some time ago. And I did try making the garden stones in Bible School one summer. Maybe I had leftover stone molds and maybe Frankie cooperated to put his paw print in cement. More likely Marley would cooperate to do that. But sound like I have a way to make some extra bucks from pet lovers. LOL I could have been practicing.

    Marji, limes are green and a knife could have a brown handle. Could.

    Lucy, you are sort of there with Marji in the lim thinking only you’re squeezing yours while she’s slicing hers.

    Lee, a balloon is a great guess. And you never know when you’ll need to pop that balloon quick. So keep a knife handy.

  2. This has to be your hardest one yet. I’ve stared at it until my eyes go wobbly and so far the only thing I can see is the tied-off end of a green balloon.. the end one would’ve blown in. The brown stick would be used to burst it with, I guess. Congratulations on your book becoming a finalist. No surprise there!

  3. This looks like the handle of a knife and a slice of lime.

    That toast looks very yummy 😋

    Congratulations for, WHEN the MEADOW BLOOMS being an award finalist!

  4. I have no idea for this photo, but I see a little hand (paw) print. So, I’ll guess that this is your introduction for your new hobby of making pet paw print garden stones. A dog print would be too obvious, so you recruited a neighbour’s pet rat.

  5. Ann I used to make sourdough bread from starter many years ago now. Made it every week for years. As soon as I saw your picture that was what came to mind.
    Congratulations on your book being a finalist…doesn’t surprise me though…you know it is my favorite book so far…loved it!
    I am going with the first thing that came to mind when I saw the picture (though probably wrong) and saw it is a kiwi.
    Thanks for your mystery game…I love it too!

  6. I thought the English Muffin guess was just a bit too easy to be exactly right but was at least close. 🙂
    This photo is a bit tricky but makes me think it is a wheel on a plant stand or small cart.
    Congratulations on When the Meadow Blooms-it was a great story and deserves it!

  7. Even though the shape looks like a frying pan/pot, I guess that it’s a zoom-in of the icing on a cake/cookie (now I’m hungry, lol!).

  8. My first, immediate thought was that it looks like the bottom of a small green frying pan, but that seems too easy!! My second thought was a wheel of some kind.

    These mystery pictures are so much fun. I am going to hate to see the end of them. Thank you for brightening up my hum drum old life!!!

    Congratulations on your book being a finalist. Your books are all so good and deserve the recognition.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.