“Imagination thrives on mystery”―Patrick Harpur
Well, this had been an extra fun Mystery Photo Game, but tonight we come down to our last mystery photo for this time. I’ve strained my brain enough coming up with five mystery photos. And I didn’t do too bad with the first ones. I managed to get some tricky ones in there for some of you and even most of you and maybe all of you once. It did turn out that my cicada eye wasn’t all that mysterious to those of us in the middle of the invasion of Brood XIV, named the Bourbon Brood (I think). We’ve seen a lot of those red-eyed bugs and heard even more.
I got 27 guesses on the last mystery picture (109 total guesses on all the photos so far), and I was surprised when it turned out to be such a mystery. There was one for sure right guess and another sort of right guess. As every other time, you all used your imaginations and came up with answers from a lot of different directions. There were guesses of everything from two muddy hands to a hamburger on a bun to a doily on a chair arm. I loved every guess because I could almost hear your imaginations making a whirring noise as you thought up what the photo might be when the rest of the picture was revealed.
Several guessed flower. I got to use my imagination when some of you saw that flower floating in a creek or emerging from the mud. A couple guessed trees and tree barks. Lavon went from a chocolate cream pie to a rocky outcropping. But she wasn’t the only one thinking rocks and stones. That might have been the most popular guess and went from granite to rocks to stone countertops.
Several saw moths. A few said a towel or blanket. Paula saw a turtle. Birds showed up in the guesses and feathers. Of course, the food guesses are always fun. Not a bad thing to try since I have had food mystery photos in the past. Angie guessed S’more with marshmallows and immediately was ready for some chocolate.
Several of you said you were no good at this game. Trust me, I would be stumped right there with you if I hadn’t already seen the pictures. In fact, I’ve kept a file on my computer of past mystery photos, and sometimes I have no idea what this or that one actually is.
The surprising, exactly right guess is from Lucy who has fun suggesting interesting things like a deer licking a popsicle. If you look back at the mystery photo of those birthday candles, you might see that popsicle licking deer too. Lucy was smiling about her guess that day. And this time, she did first say a chocolate lava cake, but she went from that right to a fungus on a tree. Connie was mostly right when she said mushrooms. Way to go, both of you!
When I took a picture of this early in March before the flowers started blooming, I intended to post it on Facebook as a flower in winter. But I kept forgetting about it until the moment for posting it seemed to have passed. Then it was time for mystery pictures.
Now, we have this last mystery that I’m guessing might not be that much of a memory. I might not have used it except my daughter didn’t figure it out. She’s sometimes my mystery photo tester, but maybe her eyes were just tired that day.
If you all get it right this time, that will be only fair after your patience at trying to figure out all those other mysteries. All of your imaginations ran down some pretty interesting paths. I’m always ready for my imagination to find some of those kinds of trails to follow in my stories.
I’m getting ready to jump into some editing on the book that is scheduled for next spring. My characters do go down some interesting trails. Speaking of characters — we were sort of, weren’t we? — I talked with a wonderful group of writers Friday at a Books in Progress Conference in Lexington. I tried to share with them about how I come up with my story people. I’m not sure that they went away with any new hints, but I did make them laugh when I shared an Appalachian phrase to describe a lazy man. “He’s so slow it doesn’t hurt him to fall out of a tree.”
All right. Nothing slow about you all. It’s time for you to make your last round of guesses on the new mystery photo up top?
A guess will get you an entry or another entry if you’ve already guessed on one or more of the other mystery photos. I’ll pick the winners before Wednesday’s post. So the deadline to enter is noon EST, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Two winners, chosen by random, will get their choice of one of my books.
Thanks again for reading and for playing my Mystery Photo Game.
Comments 28
Author
And the fun of this version of the Mystery Photo Game is drawing to a close. Thank all of you for exercising your imaginations with me.
Angie – I love your guess. Definitely could be water drops on a toad. Of course, it could, but… I’m so glad you had fun playing the game.
Donna Jean – You weren’t the only one to see rain or water on a muddy path. Soon we will know if you and the other might be on the right path to a good answer or if you might be getting stuck in that imagined mud.
Trudy, I suppose a number of those who guess what this picture might be were hungry because they were there with you about the chocolate although it came in various forms, icing, pudding, brownies, cookies, and/or melting. I think we need to have a chocolate party.
Okay, maybe I just really want chocolate, but I see chocolate melting!! lol!!
I believe it is raindrops in a muddy path.
Looks like drops of water on a toad’s skin to me. Thanks for having these, it’s always fun to try to guess what your pictures are!!
Author
You all have been so much fun these last couple of weeks as we played the Mystery Photo Game. I’ve enjoyed the variety of ideas about the photos. Love seeing imaginations at work. 🙂 Of course, I also like it when you don’t all immediately “solve” the mystery of the photos.
Lots of ideas on this last picture with chocolate ruling, I think. Well, chocolate can rule here at my desk.
Kris, you don’t have to be good at guessing. You just have to have fun, and I hope you have. But who knows? You aren’t the only one seeing chocolate. I might have taken a picture of a cake. I have been known to do that.
Lisa B – you were straight and to the point. Now we’ll see if that point is in the right direction.
Diana, you know puddles can be very interesting and I have pointed my camera toward a puddle of water in the past. Maybe I used one of those pictures for my mystery photo. Maybe.
Paula & Susan, you are with Kris on that chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I have a great recipe for a chocolate cake. Maybe I should make one. Maybe I did make one and take a picture.
Marti & Judi & Una – I have a couple of granddaughters who expect chocolate ice cream to be in my freezer and it has been for a lot of years to satisfy their chocolate cravings. But did I take a picture of that ice cream? That remains to be seen. Judi, you went from ice cream to a granite counter. Quite a difference there. 🙂
Lee – a penny? Or a painting? Wonder which or perhaps neither. Hmm.
Hope, no need not making a perfect run of wrong guesses, but then you might have snapped your streak if one of your guesses turns out to be right. Thanks for making those guesses. I always enjoy your comments. Footprints in the mud or a flowerpot or water on dirt. You’ve covered some “ground” there. Pun, intended.
Dana, we have had the rain this spring. And looks as though more is on the way after this break for sunshine today and tomorrow. So, we do have plenty of mud and raindrops.
Brenda, thanks for stopping by with a guess. Caramel icing is the best. My granddaughter who loves making cakes likes putting caramel icing on them. But did I take a picture of one of her cakes?
Wilma, I like your thinking. Birthday and Happy do both end with y. That is some deductive imagination thinking. Whether it took you down the right path remains to be seen.
Elisabeth, who knows is right, but then you did know on one of the mystery pictures. In facet you were the only one who did know on that birthday cake candle. And chocolate pudding and mud do have similar colors. Maybe one of them is right. Maybe.
Karen, I like your guess. I made some brownies just the other day when the grandkids came to visit. Everybody loves brownies, or at least they should.
Amy, you’re with Lisa B. with your straightforward answer. When you know, you know. But are you right? That will be revealed tomorrow.
Connie, I can make some delicious chocolate chip cookies. Made some just the other day when the family was visiting. The mystery photo could be a close-up of one of those.
bn100, you are with several others on that chocolate icing. Hard to go wrong with chocolate.
Birdie, when you’re hungry chocolate ice cream is a good choice. I’ve been buying fudgesickles for my chocolate craving. I think I need to leave them at the store. I like them too well.
Marji, you aren’t the only one this time stumped on my mystery photos, but think of all the exercise your imagination got. And this is a great answer too. I can imagine that little critter in the mud. Wonder what kind a critter it is? Smile.
Megan, I love how you came up with a guess all your own. And it could be a cracked leather seat. We have one of those on a run-about my husband uses to go look around on the farm. I could have taken a picture in an attempt to be extra sneaky.
Lucy, love the tadpoles and mud guess. Just the other day I took a photo of the tadpoles in the water trough for the cows. A zillion of them. Well, I didn’t actually count, but there were a bunch. And mud, well, that’s everywhere right now.
Suzanne, rivulets is such an expressive word and they could trace some lines in dirt. Or then there is always frosting.
This time I’ll guess rivulets of water running down a patch of dirt or sand. Another idea I had was frosting on a cake. It’s always fun to imagine what your photos could possibly be!
I’m guessing tadpoles & mud. Well it never hurts to try to figure it out. 😀
Cracked leather seat, maybe.