A Game of Hide and Seek in Photos

What I enjoy most about Easter is the hiding and seeking of treats. I best like hiding and having my loved ones do the seeking.

It’s just Ed and me together today, and we haven’t made any eggs or purchased chocolate treats, but we have an odd assortment on knick knacks, old toys and gifties and souvenirs that have accumulated in our home over the years. I decided to put together a collection of some of those that I can hide in our backyard for Ed to seek.

And I thought, hey, maybe I can invite others to join the fun!

Let’s first get a lay of the land, uh, tiny Brooklyn garden…

The daffodils and hyacinths are in full bloom, the crocuses are already fading, but most of the rest of the garden is still waiting for Spring to kick in…

Okay, let’s familiarize ourselves with the items we will be seeking.

A plush dragon, a plush bear, a lion hand puppet, four plush frogs, three plastic or beanie cows, a wind-up frog, a witch figurine, and 10 strands of colorful beads.

Section 1. Eight items are hidden here…

See any of them yet?

Okay, let’s look a little closer… to the left ….

… to the right …

Okay, getting closer. Three items are hidden in this picture. One of them should be really obvious now…

Yes, that would be the lavender beads.

The second item may be more easily seen from above…

There is Mr. Bear.

That third item was the trickiest. But maybe from this angle…?

See her now?

Let’s look up higher? See him?

What about now?

Yep. There’s the lion!

Let’s look this way now. Two items hidden here…

But even I can only see one of them in this photo…

Up there, in the tree…

As for the other item, let’s get a little closer… a glimpse can be caught if you squint…

… easier to just poke your head around…

Okay, still missing a few items… let’s check out the left side again…

Something …. is …. not the right color ….

you see it?

Okay, let’s get closer…

Peekaboo!

Great. We found all the items in this sections. Wait, there’s one more?

That was the easy one, didn’t you already see it when we started this section?

Look again:

There it is. The garden gnome and his frog are ready for mardi-gras!

Okay, moving on to section two. Six items hidden here…

No?

Okay, let’s get a little closer. To the left…

To the center…

To the right…

Yes, that’s right, silver beads right up ahead…

Okay, number 2 of section 2. See him?

Maybe now?

I spy an eye…

Maybe if we take a step to the right….

Okay, now you see him! Right?

(When the first musical you wrote back in high school is called “Once Upon a Frog”, a trend in amphibian themed souvenirs and gifts is started that lasts a whole life long….)

This next one is easier to spot…

That’s right. More mardi-gras beads! (Not that we got any of these during actual mardi-gras. Our beads got collected at various Pride marches. One of these days we’d love to visit New Orleans… maybe not during mardi-gras though…)

Looking up and to the right…

Moo!

Wait … might there be yet another ….

Cow? (Who keeps giving us those?)

The sixth and final item of section 2 is…

… not so hard to spot, right?

Section 3. Six more items here.

Right side….

Left side …

You see them, right?

This closer look makes one of two really obvious…

The beads around the bird feeder. (The birds weren’t happy that I was milling about in the garden during breakfast.)

But do you see the second item now too?

There’s the wind-up frog!

Okay, three more items can be found looking back towards the right again…

Maybe if we get closer…

These beads at the left…

This froggy lurking below…

And the silver beads strung up at the right.

And then there’s one more…. let’s look down…

Okay, that is nearly impossible to spot.

Maybe if we get closer…

Still not?

What about now?

Another silly stocking stuffer cow put to good use!

And for those of you counting, you may have noticed one googly eyed frog and one set of beads are unaccounted for.

Yeah, I’m not sure what I did with them either.

Guess we’ll see if I (or Ed) find them!

UPDATE:

Ed, done with his Quaker meetings, was raring to hunt Easter knick knacks. The beads on the bird feeder he saw right away. They were meant to be the easiest catch.

(Ed would later put beads over the bird feeder for me to seek too. They were more cunningly hidden, but still, I’m embarrassed that they were the last item I found on my turn…)

Ed finds his first frog.

More beads…

Turns out the unaccounted for set of (green) beads were attached to the plush frog hidden in the back.

That still left the missing frog with the googly eyes. Luckily I discovered his hiding place before Ed did, and surreptitiously took pictures of it.

Do you see him?

How about now?

Ed found the blue dragon in the level above…

… but then stepped right past the googly eyed frog.

However, on a later return visit…

… Googly Eyes was found!

Most of my toy frogs were props when “Once Upon a Frog” was first performed many years ago. Googly Eyes is the one that would eventually turn into Prince Charming! So he’s particularly dear to me. And to think that for a minute or sixty I lost track of him! Shocking!

Finally Ed found all but one little cow.

When he asked for a hint i told him there was nothing more to find in that section.

After that he suddenly zeroed in on the cow like GPS.

Next, my turn. Ed hides. I seek.

First item I find are the Pride beads. Sweet.

I find lots of beads right off the bat.

Friends Ruddy or Green. (F.R.O.G.)

See the lion?

Getting closer…

He’s right there in the middle.

What about Mr. Bear?

And who may be hiding here?

See the witch?

No? How about now?

She’s actually looking out the other window.

It seemed odd that at this point I still hadn’t found the largest figure…

But just because I didn’t hide things in the lower terrace, doesn’t mean Ed wouldn’t …

This mourning dove sitting on her nest couldn’t have been happy with us rooting all about the garden.

Ed hadn’t notice her when he placed this frog near her nest. We still managed to leave her undisturbed.

Do you see her nest hidden in the vines? (This is like a PG version of “Blow Up”.)

The loot, twice hidden, twice found.