Sanderlings From Hell

Day 111: As a 1500-piece jigsaw, my friend Patty's photo titled "Sanderlings on the Rocks" is without debate the most difficult puzzle I've ever put together. It didn't take me long to subtitle it "Sanderlings from Hell." The largest single section I was able to assemble consisted of no more than 18 pieces. The rest had to go in one piece at a time solely by shape because there was very little colour variation between rocks and birds. Even with it finished and on the table, I don't think I could make an accurate count of Sanderlings. Some have their heads under their wings, and I swear some of the rocks have legs. There were some tense moments when I was convinced one or more pieces were missing; in fact, as late as last night when I had fewer than 100 pieces left to go, there was a line of three I simply could not find. I eventually got them by trying to fit in every remaining piece, one at a time. What a great puzzle!

Pieces Of Sanderlings

Day 94: The Christmas tree was down, freeing up space in the living room. I got both looms emptied. I got the knitting off the needles. All my time-value projects were done, so I was ready to start putting together a custom jigsaw puzzle given to me by a friend. When Patty posted her photo of "Sanderlings on the Rocks" some time last fall, I'd commented that I'd love it as a 1500-piece puzzle, not expecting her to take me seriously. I didn't even know that custom puzzles of that size could be made, but it put me in mind of a series I'd done forty years ago called "Super Challenge," scenes with very little colour distinction. I love difficult jigsaws, and thought her Sanderlings image would have been a perfect candidate for the brand. When I work a puzzle, I go at it with the same fervor I devote to any other project, and a standard 1000-piece model usually takes me about three days to complete. The Super Challenges required a bit more time, but never more than a week. I have now been at the Sanderlings for roughly 10 days now (possibly as many as 12), and don't yet have even a third of it done. Now that's a challenging puzzle!

Love-Hate Relationship

Day 90: I can't decide whether I love to hate this jigsaw puzzle, or hate to love it. I will admit that it is a favourite, although I don't do it nearly as often as others I like for the same reasons. I enjoy difficult jigsaws, and this one certainly fits the profile. The problem is that it's...PINK. It may look like it has a good range of colours when you look at the box, but the bottom line is that all but a very few of those 1000 pieces are PINK when you pour them out on the table. And we all know my opinion of PINK. It even disgusts me to write the word.

I bought it from Burpee Seed Co. years ago. It came with a packet of seeds bearing the exact same picture. I dutifully sowed the seed in the "barren wasteland" between my house and garage, and quietly rejoiced when it failed to germinate. Don't get me wrong. I like windflowers...as long as they're some other colour than PINK.

It will take me a few days to put the puzzle together. I find it difficult to work on under artificial light. In sunlight, I perceive the subtlety of shades; however, occasionally when I walk out of the room in the evening and return with a fresh eye along with my coffee, I may manage to fit in a PINK piece or two. Why couldn't Burpee have chosen nasturtiums?

"About A Million Marbles"

Day 93: My cousin Toni surprised me this year with a Christmas gift of a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle entitled "About a Million Marbles." I cringed inwardly at the age of it, fearing missing pieces. "Eh, I'll put it together once anyway," I said to myself, and dragged out the card table and the cookie sheets and proceeded to lay out every piece rightside-up. The edge went together in about an hour, and by bedtime, I had a few pieces added to the next row in. That was my plan of attack: start from the edge and work in, because there was no hope of trying the old "put the blue bits together first" method.

New Year's Day saw me out on the trail, leaving only an hour or so in the evening to resume puzzling, but yesterday, I settled in shortly after breakfast and worked all day...no exaggeration, all frigging day!...and an hour past the time when I usually retire. I was positive I'd found several places where a piece was missing. I cannot abide a missing puzzle piece, but I'd vowed to complete it, and complete it I would. This morning, with about 100 pieces still on the cookie sheets, I began again. The longer I worked, the more convinced I became that some pieces were gone, but because it was marbles...and we all know how much I like marbles...I was thinking that if it was only missing one, perhaps two pieces, I'd keep it anyway and label the box accordingly.

I wasn't counting empty holes (impossible anyway due to the irregularly shaped pieces), and as I got down to the last dozen, I was still convinced some were missing. Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...what the hell? I had four pieces left and only three open spots! I ran my hands over the surface and discovered one more open space I hadn't seen. Four...three...two...one...DONE!

I love jigsaw puzzles. I love HARD jigsaw puzzles (complex patterns and "monochrome" color schemes), but not gimmicky ones (same picture printed on both sides, and so on). My usual preference is for 1000-piece or greater, but in this case, I'm quite content with a mere 500 pieces. This one goes on my shelf of favorites, for sure!

Thanks to the addition of the cat's-eyes accenting the puzzle (a gift from my sister-of-the-heart, Patty), my personal collection now holds 3817 marbles and weighs about 50 pounds. While that's not even close to a million marbles, I'm hoping to bring the total to 5000 some day.

'Tis The Season To Be Puzzling

Day 79: Snow, rain, wind, and cold mean it's time to break out the jigsaw puzzles. I only work on them in the wintertime, but I do the same ones year after year after year. Sometimes I make it through the whole stack (about two dozen). Other times, I'll only put together two or three before some other project takes my fancy. My preference is for 1000-piece puzzles, and although I generally choose those which look the most challenging insofar as color palette is concerned, this montage of old-fashioned seed packets is one of my favorites. Hmmm...this conversion to a sepiatone photograph looks like it would make a pretty good puzzle, too. Puzzle within a puzzle! Now that's something I haven't seen on a store shelf.