What about this?

“It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog.” This Beatle’s song lyric plays through my head as I walk through the back door. I feel fatigue settle upon me as I remove my shoes. My feet hurt from wearing “fashionable” shoes and from being on my feet for most of the day. I tell my husband it had been a “Calgon take me away” kind of day. As I say that, the visual image of soaking in a tub of billowy bubbles, seems like the very thing to do to sooth my weary bones.

With the warm water running, I pour in some lavender-scented bubble bath and watch bubbles miraculously form. “Bubbles are spherical because of surface tension, but the tension that lurks on the surface of your life will evaporate once you sink into an Aura Cacia bubble bath” reads the label. Ah, so wise are the marketers of Calgon and Aura Cacia products.

A heavenly cloud of bubbles beckons me to feel its silky froth. After lighting wonderfully fragrant candles and dimming the bathroom lights, I gently slip into the tub and close my eyes. Minutes of reverie later, I open my eyes and gaze at the mounds of bubbles. How strong, yet delicate the spheres appear to be. As the top most part of the mounds begin popping, they transform into pieces of surreal lacework enhanced by candlelight. I look at this piece of art in front of my eyes and then feel the need to look at it from all sides; I plunge deeper into the water to look straight up at it. I call to my husband to bring me my camera! I snap photo after photo trying to capture the glittery mass of soap and air before me.

I can hardly contain my excitement as I dress and run down the stairs to my computer. The downloaded images are interesting, but my Ambien-enhanced brain says they need tweaking, so I play around with the exposure settings and color adjustments until the medication takes over . . .

There you have it folks! That’s the history of the mystery photo. The correct answer to the contest is bubbles! The photo above is a more revealing view of the bubbles in my bubble bath. Now that you know the answer, I bet all of you will look at the photo and say, “Yes, that’s it!”

Thanks to all of you who submitted guesses. I sincerely enjoyed reading each and every one of them! From this sampling of guesses – from sneezes to my granite counter top to blue speckled granite ware pots to flash reflection in a mirror – you can see the great depth of imagination everyone used in trying to figure out the subject matter.

Stay tuned! The winner of the contest and the winner’s prize will be revealed in an upcoming post! And if you liked the photo of the bubbles and this contest, you should see the photo I have in mind for my next contest!