“Enjoy the little things in life for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault
Do you like little mysteries? I know some of you do since you’ve been coming back to guess on my new mystery photos. Linda says it’s fun to guess and good brain exercise. We all need that kind of exercise. Plus it gets you another entry in my book giveaway. I’ll draw for the three winners next Sunday. Those winners will get their choice of one of my books and a grab bag book by a different author. All you have to do to enter is make a guess here on my mystery photos or just say you don’t know.
So far most of you are coming up with some kind of guess, but for the second time, I’ve stumped most of you with my mystery picture. Some of you were close to right, but not exactly. Several of you figured out that it was frost. Others knew it was something woody even if you thought it was a stem of a plant. I suppose Loretta and Connie were closest with their “frost on a stick” guess. Kathleen and Amy had sharp eyes to spot the remains of a spider web from summer along with the frost.
So here’s the rest of the picture. A frosty clothespin on a frosty clothesline. I must have laundr
y days on my mind. First a scrub board and now a clothespin. And just like with the wash board, the picture got my curiosity up about the history of clothespins. Many credit the Shakers with either coming up with the clothespin or improving them. I did find some interesting pictures on a Raising Jane blog post of very old clothespins. You might want to hop over there and check out her article. It is believed that the first clothespins were carved out of wood. That definitely sounds like something the Shakers would do.
I still have some of the old wooden pins passed down
from my mother that look like this. A few of them have square tops instead of rounded ones. I’ll have to hunt those up and take a picture. But most of my clothespins are the ones with springs like in my mystery picture. From 1852 to 1887, the U.S. patent office issued 146 separate patents for clothespins. The first design that resembles the modern clothespin was patented in 1853 by David M. Smith, a prolific Vermont inventor. Everybody is always ready to make a better mousetrap or in this case, a better clothespin. And I made a mystery picture out of a clothespin left out on the clothesline to get frost covered.
One more fun clothespin picture of Claes Oldenburg’s sculpture of a giant clothespin in Philadelphia. Art from common everyday things. I haven’t seen this in person, but I’m sure some of you have.
Now, up at the top of the page, you have a new mystery picture to guess. I’m thinking I won’t stump you all with this one, but I have a dandy ready for you on Wednesday since that will be the last mystery picture before I draw for the winners. Thanks so much for dropping by to play my guessing game. I hope you are having fun.
As always, thanks for reading.
Comments 42
Looks like animal nose and whiskers.
Author
Good guess, Mary. Might even by right. Several here seem to agree with you that it’s some kind of critter. We’ll see on Wednesday night. 🙂
I think it looks like a close up of a yucky, hairy spider. My mom said to tell you hello and her guess is a bird or rooster.
Author
You and Gin are going to make me have nightmares about spiders, Nyla. 🙂 My husband won’t be glad to hear that because I did for years have spider nightmares. Not lately though. Tell your mom hello and that I did have a rooster mystery picture in one of my contests last year. I think everybody guessed those rooster feathers.