“There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.” ~H.L. Mencken
That’s not to say that a mystery picture in my Mystery Picture Game is a problem. It’s not. It’s just some imagination exercise. Thank all of you who did some of that imagination exercising. And then I forgot to post the “solution” or the rest of the story last night. I remembered late, very late, last night that hey, it’s Wednesday. That’s what holidays do for you. Get a person all off schedule.
Or it could be the book I was listening to. I have been saving it, a Louise Penny Three Pines mystery, to listen to the audio version as a reward for getting my work in progress off to the editor. I love listening to audio books, but I have to be careful about what I listen to while I’m actively writing a new book because, for some reason, hearing the book read to me sometimes gets that author’s voice in my head when I need my author’s voice in my head. Anyway, I ending up listening to that book instead of remembering it was Wednesday and I had promised the reveal of my first mystery photo.
I regret to say that although I had quite a few guesses, nobody got the complete answer. Well, you know I’m not really regretting those imaginative wrong answers. I’m actually smiling because I thought this one was going to be too easy. I almost rejected it as a possible mystery. But the plaid reflection did make you all exercise those imaginations. That has to be good for the brain. Some of the guesses I could see. Birdie’s of being in a giant muddy hole with a worm or a grub took more imagination than I have, but I loved the guess. Certainly plenty of mud around lately. And Amy was sort of there with Birdie with her idea of looking up at a hole in the ceiling of a cave.
Several people saw bird feathers. Lee saw a girl holding a fluffy chicken. Brenda saw a tree trunk. Marji and Wilma thought maybe I’d taken a picture of my husband’s arm in a cast. That could have happened. I did take a picture of his cast which actually just turned out to be mostly cotton padding and wraps, but no, I didn’t think about that being a mystery. Lisa saw a chocolate cake and Hope saw a pie in the oven. Almost made me start baking. Suzanne must have been reading thrillers lately as she saw a plaid shirt with a bleeding wound. Evelyn had the same idea with paint instead of blood, and Elisabeth just thought it was a cherry stain.
Deborah saw a beer bottle, but it was actually something else I’m addicted to. Sweets! I do love having some sweet jam or jelly on my toast in the mornings and a year ago I actually had enough strawberries to make some jam. Homemade strawberry jam is the best. I thought you might guess the strawberry jam, but that plaid tea towel made it very mysterious. I can be tricky at times in this game.
But right answers weren’t necessary to get you an entry into the drawing to win a choice of one of my autographed books. Una just said she didn’t know, but she enjoyed the game. I’m glad you all had fun with my first mystery picture. So here is the big reveal.
Thank you for all the great guesses. You made the first mystery photo fun. Of course, I always think it’s more fun when you don’t all get it right.
So now we have a new mystery picture. I thought this one might be more difficult, but then my granddaughter got it on first guess. So, you might too. Sometimes I just don’t know what is mysterious and what is plain to see.
I will need to hunt a new photo for Sunday. Don’t have one picked out yet.
But here you go on Mystery Photo #2. If you guessed on the first photo and guess now on this one, you get another entry in the drawing. I’ll have three more photos, very mysterious or perhaps not so mysterious, for the next three posts. So, if you guess on all of them, you’ll have five chances to have your name picked, in a random drawing, to win one of the book prizes. I’ll pick two winners and the deadline to enter is June 7, 2025 at midnight EST. I will intend to announce the winners on my blog, One Writer’s Journal, on Sunday night, June 8th – if I don’t let Sunday slide away from me that week the way I let Wednesday slide past yesterday.
I had some grandkids visiting. We played cards before we went out to the garden to set out tomato plants, by season, in our very muddy garden. By season means the ground was plenty wet without carrying a bucket of water out to pour on the plants. The kids are very experienced gardeners and have been helping their dad plant garden since they were very young. They used to have more fun doing it when they were five than now that they are teenagers, but they got out there and mucked around in the mud with me. I should have taken a picture of the mud caked on my shoes. Might have made a great mystery photo.
Now it’s guessing time – or maybe knowing time. What is mystery photo 2?
Comments 30
Author
Una – Glad you came up with a guess this time. Who knows? It might be right. A few other people are guessing the same.
Megan – Painting sounds like a good guess since if you go to the abstract side, it could just about be anything, couldn’t it? And if I painted it, it would definitely look like something it wasn’t, no doubt. Or a mug. You’re not the first to say that.
bn100 – Several have seen a deer in the mystery photo, I do see a lot of deer when I’m walking the dogs on the farm. Interesting guess.
Lucy – You not only see that deer, you see it licking a popsicle. That takes a lot of imagination even if you were to turn out to be right.
Lisa H. – You have killed off the deer or whatever and had me bring it in. I have picked up bones before. Once when I had a Bible School of country kids, they painted some cow bones. Turned out very cute. Their parents might have made them throw them away. LOL.
Kathy – Flower is always a good guess because I do take pictures of those flowers.
Judi – It’s good to just say so when you’re stumped. If I was the one doing the guessing, I’d be right there with you.
Suzanne – An armadillo? I guess I could have headed southwest and come across an armadillo and brought it home for a pet. I could have, but I don’t think Frankie would like sharing space with it.
Deborah – When you see a picture, you see a complete picture. Orchid – I do have orchids blooming right now. Sink with a faucet and tea towel – I have all those too. But did I take a picture of them? That remains to be revealed along with the rest of the photo.
Wilma – It is tomato season – well, maybe for greenhouse tomatoes. But the grandkids and I put some tomato plants in the ground – the muddy ground – the other day. Might have had me ready to slice into a tomato and take a picture.
Rebecca – When you’re painting, you do spatter that ladder sometimes. I make lots of spatters everywhere when I’m painting. I saw everything you saw, but was I using my imagination too? That is the question.
Connie Lee – Marji was thinking some the same with her origami deer head in her guess. And if you’ve ever been on a cruise or in a fancy hotel, they do sometimes fold napkins and towels in neat ways. Maybe I can do that too. Maybe.
Author
Love all your guesses. Not saying which are right or close but imagination is a gift that can make everything better or sometimes worse according to what you’re imagining. But with these mystery photos, imagination is all fun.
Dana – I like that you see flowers. We should all see flowers and several others are seeing flowers too.
Trudy – The seame as Dana you saw flowers. But I love that you also saw a popsicle to help you cool down. Your applesauce with walnuts sound delicious.
Marji – The strawberry jam was yummy. I have a few strawberries this year and I’m thinking about making maybe a pint of jam. I don’t have many strawberries, but one jar of jam will still taste good. And an origami deer head is an interesting guess. Who knows? It might even be right. Or not.
Elisabeth – I like that you see candles. We all need a little candlelight sometimes.
Lisa B – I don’t guess you have to know why you see whatever you see. This is all whatever you see when you check out the mystery photo. And you aren’t the only one to sat coffee mug.
Paula – Love your broom closet guess. I do have berry buckets stored away for picking berries. So who knows? I could have taken a picture like that.
Pamela – A deer eating berries – I do have a trail camera. Maybe I did catch a picture like that. Maybe?
Sharon – I’ve never been very good at making anything out of clouds which would probably mean that if I was on the other side of this mystery photo game, I’d be terrible at it. I like your guesses though. Flowers and fruit pops. I used to buy those strawberry fruit bars. I could have taken a picture.
Amy – I have sewn in zippers before. Never my favorite sewing job. I admire people who can sew without ever getting a stitch out of place. That’s not me. But a misplaced stitch wouldn’t make a difference in a mystery photo, would it?
Lee – More popsicles. I bought my grandkids some of those in the plastic sleeves and now have a pile of them in the freezer since the grandkids got mostly past the popsicle age. But I eat one now and again. There might even be some orange ones. I could have taken a picture. But I like how you added a couple more guesses, just in case I was making Christmas cookies and grabbed my camera.
Susan – A giraffe. I’ve seen them in the zoo. I’ve taken pictures of them. And I do have a faucet and a towel. So, maybe one of your guesses is right. Maybe?
Diana – You are right there with Susan with the faucet idea. You’ll have to check back on Sunday night or Monday morning to see if you are right.
It looks like a towel folded to look like a deer’s head.
Someone is painting and I see a ladder that’s been used many times as it is splattered in paint and that other object closer up is the poor spout of a paint can. Not sure about the reddish orange wall hanging.
A sliced tomato.
I see an orchid sitting on top of a sink next to a faucet with a tea towel.
As a Texan, I must guess that mystery photo #2 looks like an armadillo perched on something in the house, but that’s not possible, is it?
This one has me totally stumped! Your granddaughter must be really good at this!