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!