I’m guessing that this Macro Monday puzzle will be dead easy for some, and impossible for others, though I’d have thought that the ‘dead easy’ camp would be in the majority.

This is something I use regularly. It lives in my kitchen, but it doesn’t really belong there. It comes on holiday with me, and quite frankly, though it isn’t absolutely, totally essential, it is a real pain in the neck to do the job in the alternative way. Some of you will instantly know what I mean.

I am guessing that most of you have one of these. Most of them will look similar, at least, though they may be a different shape and a different colour.

Take a close look, then take your guess! Pop your answer in the comments, as usual, and as usual I’ll be back (like Arnie, only a shorter, slightly more feminine version) tomorrow evening, when I’ll deliver the answer in the form of a picture link.

Have fun! Oh, and don’t forget to pop over to the Macro Monday 2 blog to see other people’s offerings!

Oh, so not ‘dead easy’ after all, then!  Sorry about that!

Go here for the answer in the form of a picture.

The fact is that I’ve won this round with only TWO of you getting the answer.  The first one was Lea, of Lea’s Menagerie, and the second, Lori of What Remains Now.  Well done indeed, Lea and Lori!

After posting this picture I did think ‘Hmm, maybe that’s not as easy as I thought’, so my apologies for that.  However, I still do think you all have one (or more) of these things, and I’m betting that at least some of you will be able to do the job in the alternative way as mentioned above.  If not, and if you still want to know what I meant by that, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll explain!

Once again, thanks so much for playing.  Next week?  Oh, next week I really will try to make it easier!

Hello, everyone, here’s your Macro Monday puzzle for this week!  You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?  Ha!

Now, personally, I think this one is a doddle, but what do I know?  Take a look and see what you think.  It’s a fairly familiar object, I believe, though not everyone will have or use one.  You see them in all kinds of buildings, homes, shops, offices, schools, etc.

It looks kind of fragile, and in some ways it is.  They can certainly be damaged, but this one is over ten years old and still in good shape.    What else can I tell you?  Some people, some places, need them more than others.  They are functional, but can also be highly decorative … and a damned nuisance.  Some dogs hate them.  Ours don’t care.

I’m pretty sure you’ll score highly on this one, but I’m ready to be surprised!  Tee hee.

Pop your answer in the comments, and I’ll be back as usual tomorrow to give you the answer. Look for a picture link at the bottom of this post.

Tuesday evening update:

You know what?  I’m proud of you!  Most of you got this one.

Babs of Beetle Blog was the first with the correct answer, so well done, Babsy!  Then came Taffy’s Mum, Artmuse Dog and Carol,  Lori of What Remains Now, and Hannah – though I don’t call these ones Roman, probably some people do!

Of the rest, I’m pretty sure Herman Turnip got it, but since he didn’t actually write the answer in his comment I can’t include him in the winner’s list, Liz has admitted cribbing from the others and Rob has announced himself disqualified.   What a wonderfully quirky bunch of people you are – I do love you! 

Here’s the answer for those who still aren’t sure.

Thanks so much for playing, all of you!  See you next week?

 

Are you getting tired of Macro Monday yet?

I’m not! I am having great fun!

Take a look at this one. Now, what on earth could it be? I suppose you want some clues.

Well, most often you’ll see these outdoors, though I’ve certainly seen them indoors in several different locations. This particular one is English, and I know you’ll find them in Europe. I don’t know if you’ll see just the same in other parts of the world, but pretty much everywhere has its own version – or many versions; they just look a bit different. Some are bigger, some are smaller, some a slightly different shape or a different colour. They are all basically the same thing, though, and serve the same purpose whichever version they are attached to.

Can you buy them? Well, yes, you can. Do many people buy them? No. Apparently schools do, sometimes, but I know of nobody personally who has made that purchase. And of course, you can’t just buy the bit you see here, you have to buy the whole thing! Tee hee.

Take a guess, and pop your answer in the comments. I’ll be back Tuesday evening (UK time) to add the answer to the bottom of this post in the form of a picture link.

Meanwhile, why not click over to Macro Monday 2 to see what other bloggers have found for you? They’re not all puzzles, but you’ll see some great macro photography!

It’s Tuesday evening here in the UK and here I am with the answer.  Go here to see the full picture and be amazed!

The first one of you to get it right was Lori of What Remains Now.  However, I am giving joint first place to Houndstooth because she guessed even more precisely AND had bought some at school!  Well, well. Now I do know someone who has done that!

Also correct were Rob Lenihan, Birgitta, Hannah, Stewart and Susie Clevenger.  Well done everybody!  Now I know for sure not many of you have actually seen these things up close so it’s pretty damn good to get all these correct guesses.  I’m impressed!

I must also just make honourable mention of Herman Turnip who guessed ‘dragonfly tail’.  It’s not correct, but it sounds plausible, and it was in the right ball park, as they say.

 

Oh, don’t you just hate it when this happens to you?

There you are, out shopping on a fine summer Saturday, and you’re hurrying to meet your husband (or partner or friend or whoever the heck you’re meeting), and you suddenly feel a stinging, burning sensation in your foot.

Do you assume, as I did, that you’ve been stung by a bee or a wasp?

I bet you don’t automatically think ‘Oh, some bastard has thrown their lighted cigarette butt in my shoe’?  But, yes, that is exactly what happened to me on Saturday as I was wending my innocent way back to Waitrose to meet OH and go home for lunch.

The pain was so intense that I nearly tripped and fell. I stopped – as you do – and reached down to rub at my foot and feel for bee stings.  There was nothing there but smudges of black gritty stuff.

I looked and looked (thinking, as you do, that if there was a sting I needed to get it out quickly), but what I did not do for quite a while was to take off my shoe and look inside it.

And that’s what I found when I did*.  See all the black on the sole from the ash, and the little round burn hole on the side of the shoe, where it first landed?

Some idiot/bastard/thoughtless person (take your pick) had simply tossed away a partly smoked cigarette without bothering to stub it out first – and it had landed between my foot and my shoe!

I have a small blister, which looks as if it will heal without bursting, thank heavens, but I suppose I’m lucky that my synthetic shoe did not start to smoulder or catch fire.  Can you imagine the paramedics’ faces if they were called out to a spontaneously combusted shoe and singed foot?

At least it didn’t rain herrings.

It’s not that I’m anti-smoking, by the way.  Despite being a lifelong non-smoker, I say ‘live and let live’, even though I can’t be in the same room if someone is smoking.  Actually, I think that pubs and public buildings should be allowed to install a well-ventilated smoking room, and that smoking should be permitted in certain public places.  As long as it doesn’t impact me directly, that’s just fine.

But really, people: dispose of the remains responsibly, would ya?

Thank you so very much.

* The picture is, of course, a recreation – only the cigarette butt was photoshopped in, the black marks and the ash and the burn on the side of the shoe are authentic and unretouched.  I didn’t even think of taking a picture at the time, but that is indeed what I found.  A large cigarette butt inside my shoe, where it had slipped under my foot.  It quite shocked the lady who was standing there collecting for the St John’s Ambulance Brigade.