Getting Our Imaginations in Focus

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ―Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

The same as every time I post this game, I am having a great time and enjoying all your guesses. Probably a little better because you aren’t all guessing the same thing. That means not all of you are “seeing” the true rest of the picture even as you focus in on the mystery picture.

Some of you have told me you’re having fun with the Mystery Photo Game. Thank you for that and for doing your best to figure out the mysteries of those photos. Only this one and then one more on Sunday before I pick the winners of the giveaway. As usual, I’m giving away books. Winners choice of one of my books. I like to give away books. That would be easier if postage wasn’t climbing up and up again. But for sure, I’m going to pick winners next week after the new deadline of midnight EST on June 10, 2025 . I had said June 8th earlier but I did promise 5 mystery photos. And this is only the 4th. So, I will need to post the last mystery photo on Sunday June 8th and give you a couple of days to come up with what that last picture is.

The 4th Mystery Photo is up top. I have no idea if this one is easy or not so easy. I don’t know if it will exercise your imagination or if you might know what it is right away. Sort of like Lucy on Sunday’s picture when she commented that it was an “ugly  monster holding a votive candle.” And then with a laughing sticker, she said she knew she was right. I think that means she’s having fun. I hope you all are having fun with the pictures.

Sunday’s picture brought out the reptile guesses – frogs, toad, lizard, salamander, alligators and crocodiles, snakes, turtles, and let’s not forget Godzilla. I probably would have guessed frog. A couple of you said dog or at least his nose. Una and Marti just left it as an eye and they were right. Angie said eye too but then went on with bug and the reptiles.  Diana said a doorknob – a great guess. Wrong but very imaginative. Carol said hornet and I shivered. I think I’d rather take a picture of those suggested snakes. Actually, I have taken snake pictures. Lee changed her guess of a bug to a blackberry. Should have stayed with that first thought.

Several got it right. Dana, Lavon, Victoria with exactly right answers of cicada. Angie, Judi, Rebecca were mostly right with the guess of bug. Dana and Lavon and Victoria must be here in my area where the cicadas have come for their every 17 year visit. They are everywhere. We’ve seen plenty of them on grass blades and bushes, tree trunks, fences,. You name something outside and one or maybe a dozen will be clinging to it. So, we have no problem recognizing that red eye.

We’re hearing the constant chirring and whirring of the bugs. I suppose after 17 years underground they have a right to make a little noise. Well, a lot of noise. My dog, Frankie, snacked on them before they were awake enough to fly up into the trees. The birds are having a feast. I’m not that hungry, but I have let some hitch a ride into the house on my shirt. Of course, I politely asked them to go back outside.

Here are a few cicada facts in case you’re interested. 

Every 17 years some broods of cicadas emerge from the ground by the thousands, millions, well, a bunch anyway. Our brood that we’re seeing and hearing this year are Brood XIV. There are other 17 year broods and some 13 year broods and generally a few stragglers that get their years mixed up and show up in other years. But the 17 year broods are the really noisy ones. They molt out of their shells (exoskeletons) and transform from nymphs to adults.  The males do their mating call – loudly. They “sing,” if you want to call it that, by vibrating a membrane on the sides of their bodies. Once the female is impressed with that song, she lays eggs in twigs. Nymphs hatch from the eggs, fall to the ground and burrow into the earth to find tree roots to feed on for 17 years before they emerge for the new cycle to begin yet one more time. They don’t bite. They ae just noisy and sometimes snack on something you’d rather they didn’t.

In a few weeks they will have completed their mission of reproducing and the cicadas will be gone. We’ll still have some other kinds of bugs making noise, but it will sound quiet after the cicada stop singing. One odd thing I’ve noticed is that the noise of those right around you sounds different from the sounds coming from farther away. Must echo in the air or something.

Anyway, those of us who have seen all these cicadas had a step up on those of you who haven’t. But everyone still gets an entry in my book giveaway for making a guess or leaving a comment. And now here is Mystery Photo #4. Let’s see what you think about it. I’m saving one I thought would be easy and then my daughter and son-in-law couldn’t figure it out. So, it might be easy or it might not. The same with this picture up top. It’s easy if you know what it is. But not so easy if you don’t. Either way, I hope you will think it’s fun to exercise your imagination.

Have you ever seen cicadas? And what’s your guess for Mystery Picture #4?