Pareidolia

Today my little sedate, sedentary, stalwart stitchers

(a fine example of illiteration for those of you who are

even remotely interested) we're off in our armchairs into

the realms of psychological phenomena.

However this does also involve the visual stimulus of the

mind to make it work but not necessarily a set of

jump leads.  Some of you may not wish to try this at

home and my response, in this instance, consists of only

one word!  No, not that one Alice dear, simply -

"CHICKEN"

followed by much flapping of the elbows and loud

clucking noises.  A childish response admittedly but

nonetheless extremely satisfying.

Not a chicken but close - an owl.

So, let us continue on our voyage of discovery now that

we've weeded out the cowardy custards in our ranks.

We're going to perceive a familiar pattern of something

where none actually exists.  Yes - we're going to start seeing

things just like some of us did in the sixties but this time

without the aid of mushrooms and maybe not so many

flashing colours either.

The Jurist

There's nothing new about pareidolia, it's been around

for ever.  Leonardo da Vinci wrote about it in detail in his

notebooks and in 1566 Guiseppe Arcimboldo painted a

whole load of poultry and fish that looked like a face

in his work The Jurist.

What's this ear?

There's examples to be found everywhere if you only look.

Faces hidden in flowery curtains, little animals in the tea

leaves discarded in the sink (I really must compost more)

and even giant figures in rock formations or angels in the

clouds.  Why the other day I even thought I'd seen a man

in the dust that gathers so annoyingly under my bed but on

closer examination it just turned out to be an extreme example

of wishful thinking and nothing more.

Ssssssssh - I'm concentrating

Now we come to the climax of our psychological journey.

I want you to stare hard at this picture of Sean Bean, screw up

your eyes a bit, hold your breath, cross your legs, count

slowly to 17,594 and then tell me what you see .......

Here's my own guardian greyhound - can you see him?

You might just have caught a fleeting glimpse of the next

Long Dog masterpiece due for release later this year if you're

exceptionally lucky (or a fibber) and I'm not going to

share what I thought I saw for fear of making you all blush!