Putting a lid on the jigsaw

I finished my Christmas 2021 jigsaw during last year’s lockdown and immediately looked for another. It proved a satsifying and peaceful activity for the late afternoon and it wasn’t long before my Hero found one of his own and set up at the other end of the table. As soon as the fine Spring weather came though, we were done with doing jigsaws and that was it.

Maybe we’d begun a tradition however, for there in our Christmas stockings were new jigsaws for 2022 and as soon as Christmas was over, we were back there at the table from time to time. We like the 1000 piece designs though each have our distinct preferences for design - I prefer the Pomegranate puzzles, especially an impressionist painting or, unsurprisingly, anything bear-related whilst my Hero enjoys more clearly defined Art Nouveau and historical designs. Between us, we’ve put quite a bit of business in the direction of the Yorkshire Jigsaw Store , swapping those we’ve done with friends or with my WI too.

I particularly enjoyed working on this Diego Rivera image of one of the murals at the Detroit Art Institute, which we admired when we were there . In fact, scroll down through that blog post and you might spot one of the characters in the jigsaw who caught my eye..

I like the way Pomegranate puzzles vary the shape of the pieces slightly, so only one piece will fit in somewhere and there’s no room for error.

I was thinking that as, with the fine Spring weather outside, I really felt I needed to be getting on with things and not sitting doing a jigsaw! But one set of pieces remained undone…a tube that my Hero found in his Christmas Stocking of one of the panels from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It was only 150 pieces, quite self contained and I didn’t really know why he hadn’t done it - except he’d been busy finishing another. Would he mind if I just put it together? (Not at all!)

“Just put it together” eh?

The pieces are incredibly small! Not only that, it’s a black and white image and yes, every piece is identical in shape.

As I fitted the edge pieces together…and rearranged them a few times…I realised this was going to be no picnic. In fact, it took me as long to fit these 150 pieces together as it might take to finish a 1000 piece puzzle.

The stone floor in our garden room didn’t help! (There are two pieces there on the floor - can you spot them?)

What a way to sign off the jigsaw season!

This morning I have finished it! My word, did 150 pieces ever cause so many furrowed brows? This 4 x 6 inch masterpiece has been put back in its tube and the table cleared. It’s time to get on with life!!

Returning to that Detroit blogpost to get the link, I was reminded of that day for the second time this morning. At the pool first thing this morning as I completed another lap, I heard “I got sunshine…..on a cloudy day…” on my headphones. I was immediately transported back to the Motown building where a small group of us stood in the studio where that song had been recorded, were given the words and invited to sing…we sounded nothing like this, I can tell you!