Log through the Hole - Is it appealing?

Took this photo as part of my photography beginner's course. The assignment was to try f-stops and focusing. My intention with this photo was to focus on the log in the background and keep the wood in front blurred. I succeeded in this. But I am not sure whether it is appealling to other folks or not? What do you folks think

http://www.photosig.co​m/go/photos/view?id=12​32926

Cropping

I took the liberty of doing a little editing to the image to demonstrate what I think would make it look better.

All I did was to crop the image, but I think it makes it much mroe appealing ... in my opinion of course.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

For me, the blur is way too distracting with both compositions...

C

This one makes me wonder if I'm looking through a knothole? At a stump? Then I lose interest. Sorry.

I am having the same feeling about this photo since I saw it in full on my computer. Though I was attempting the shoot for my assignment, which I have demonstrated well, I do not believe this is even a keepsake. Thanks for all the comments.

I think the photo might work if you were a little further from the knot and closing down the fstop (if needed) so that the focus is on the second log, but the first has a hint of texture.

As it is, the eye naturally leads to the distant log, but then what, it's got no exploring to do... We can see some log to the right, but not enough to interest us... As the forground is totally blurry the whole image is examined quickly.

Good use of depth of field, but, it doesn't go anywhere...