Mystery Monday Winner Revealed and New Photo!

I guess I stumped you all this week so I am going to draw from all those who made a guess. I love to see how you all interpret the photo, what it says to you, and to me that is more important than 'getting it right'. These are the guesses I received and really it is amazing that it could look like all of these! There was more than one who made these guesses so I think it cool how different artists look at things.

Sunflower seed head
Clams
Flower petals
Pine cone

Now if I would have posted this one in color, it would have given it away too easily. In black and white as you see by the guesses, it can look like many things.

So, what is it a picture of?
Animal Vegetable or mineral?

It's in the Vegetation category, and it was my dinner last Friday. :) I made Tunisian Lentil Stew. And as I sorted through the bags of lentils like they tell you to on the package, and you should heed that direction, because I've found some 'minerals' in there before and it wasn't a prize of diamonds! Sometimes bits of stones get in there because it is a difficult process to gather lentils.

Anyway, I like to spread them out on a cookie sheet and go and sit by the window to get a good look at them, and believe it or not besides finding a few that were shriveled up and not worth putting in the pot I did find a small bit of rock, don't want to bite down on that!

As I sorted through them, I pushed them to the side and as they pushed up next to each other I started to notice cool patterns forming. In small areas they lined all up on their sides and took on a very intriguing texture and since my camera was nearby, I grabbed it and snapped a few shots, just with Mystery Monday in mind! :)

That is the original picture, all I did was to crop it, give it a 90 degree turn and take out the color. And Viola! it becomes the material for all kinds of guesses.

So our winner this week is................................................ Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesor Trovati! (You've got mail! )

I thought a great prize would be a special Lentil bead, so that is what Erin wins, a custom made Lentil bead ! Congratulations and thank you all for playing!

Now for this weeks photo. I took advantage of the beautiful weather here yesterday (and we are scheduled for snow, sleet and freezing rain the rest of the week) to go to the Zoo in hopes of seeing Cosmo. But most of the pond was frozen and I'm sure the fishes were at the bottom in a kind of hibernation, but I hope soon to see him again! But there were plenty of animals there and they were happy for the beautiful sunny day, especially since we have been having such a snowy and cold winter and were out and about sunning themselves and more active than I've seen them in the summer time. So I took the opportunity to bring you an outdoor picture for Mystery Monday and I even choose a category for you already to make it easier!

What category?
Animal of course!
So without further ado I present you with the Mystery Photo, in fact two so you can have some perspective. Now you know it is an animal from a Zoo so put your thinking caps on and see if you can puzzle this one out.

I know it looks like it's another black and white photo but it's not, that is the living color in full sunshine! :)

The rules are simple, even more so now.

1. View the Mystery Photo
2. Leave a comment on this post saying you are participating
3. Email me with your guess (I allow up to three) before next Monday, but DO NOT post your guess in the comments! :)
4. Next Monday I will draw a name from all the guesses and they will win a mystery surprise from me!

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