December 2020 - the month of tiers, social distancing and lots of puzzles...

Well, what do you do when you can't go out? Puzzle of course! December is always the month when my regular Xmas puzzles make an appearance. This year I had a new Gibson's advent calendar to add to the ones I'd already collected so this meant 2 mini puzzles everyday as a minimum. Christmas Eve also became a dedicated puzzle day with Christmas films on in the background and of course Boxing Day is always a puzzle day with my dad...add in a few others along the way and it proved a very busy time.

 

A tale of 3 puzzles...with a little disaster along the way

 I was enjoying our recent BCD virtual meeting with the theme of animals. I had decided to complete a 3-panel puzzle comprised of 2x 500 piece puzzles and 1x 1000 piece puzzle. Put together they would create one long image. The first puzzle was quick and I decided to store it on a board so I had space to tackle the next. Not a problem and away I went again. The second puzzle finished, I decided to slide it onto the same board as the first. Things started well, but then from behind me I heard a sound I was trying to avoid....a puzzle sliding. Well, I won't say much more - the photo shows what happened. 

So, rather than completing 3 puzzles I completed 5 in reality by doing 2 of them twice. The finished puzzle picture was lovely and although there was one piece missing it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment. Lessons learned for next time!!

Time taken: morning and most of the afternoon

Peter Pan - Tinkerbell: Ravensburger (1000 pieces)

Not the title I would have chosen, but you get the idea. I loved this puzzle - right up my street - lots of bright colours and smaller details, plus I'm a huge Disney fan. I made a mistake during the 'sort' phase by collecting all the rings and edges - this meant I had far too many pieces to work with so it took much longer. Once they were in place however, the rest of the puzzle was easy really. 

Time taken: 3.5 hours. 

Raffles - Raffles Hotel (1000 pieces)

A friend lent me this after I'd observed her progress on Facebook. She had left the sky until last, but as I'm a bit of a sky junkie I decided to start with it. A nice puzzle which definitely built up in clear sections until only the finer fiddly details were left. 

Time taken: afternoon 

Title Unknown - Fame Puzzles (1000 pieces)

Another donated puzzle, but with a twist. This one had been completed and placed on a board and covered in plastic. However, during transit it has slipped and collapsed with large sections detaching and ending up in a crumpled heap in one corner under the plastic. It took a little while to carefully gain entry, but once in I was able to put it back together quite quickly. The image is a fairly standard country cottage, but the type of scene I like - especially as it has lots of bright colours and good patch of sky! 

Time taken: 30 minutes 

Dreaming Angel - Schmidt Puzzles (1000 pieces)

 I was passed this puzzle by a friend who had had enough of the dark outer space. They normally puzzle in the evening and they rightly knew that to have success natural light would be needed. I wasn't complaining about its surrender though as I love a Schmidt puzzle - somehow they seem to have less dust than other brands. The angel in the middle didn't take long, but the outer darker bits were a little taxing - not least because of the miserable October weather and dark skies. However, it proved a lovely puzzle overall. 

Time taken: 4 hours 

BBC Points West

 I received a friend request on Facebook from someone I didn't know. I checked out her profile just to be sure, saw we had no mutual friends and her interests didn't look like mine so declined....but then I spotted that she'd also sent me a message. My curiosity took hold and I opened it to find she was connected with the BBC and they were looking to do a 'piece' on competitive jigsaws - would I be happy to be interviewed? 

Sure, why not! I'm always happy to talk puzzles and agreed.

It was soon set up, and what became apparent rather quickly is that the piece was actually to be about me specifically and my competitive puzzling - well this increased the nerves. I'm very happy with my geeky little hobby, but also realise it leaves plenty of room for people to have a laugh at my expensive. I needn't of worried - the reporter and cameraman took it all very seriously and made me feel totally at ease. The finished segment was a mixture of humour and understanding and I wasn't too embarrassed by how I came over on camera. 

Here's hoping some people watched and felt good about owning up to also being a puzzler!

Winning ways

During our last online meeting there was a caption competition on the go. Well, I'll cut a long story short - I won!...and my prize was this little beauty. 

Time taken: 1 hour 

BCD Virtual September Meeting

Due to ongoing COVID restrictions our latest meeting was once again online following a similar format to before: puzzling throughout the day and uploading photos of our progress, virtual show and tell session, and new for this time a general catch up virtual meeting on the Sunday. The theme was humour, and I decided that for my show and tell I would not only show a puzzle, but also how I did it (something I'm often asked). I won't go into the finer details in this post, but the photos show the story...

Time taken: 3 hours 

...and so another summer comes to and end...

As we prepare for a new school term never have I been more grateful for puzzles. They allow you to truly escape the world of risk assessments, DfE guidance, meetings, protocols and all things COVID. You can become lost in a world of colours, patterns, challenges, missing pieces and edges. The selection below all had an element of challenge and were all wonderful. The Parisian market offered lots of smaller details, the Eiffel Tower gave the most spectacular sky, the Titanic allowed for broad expanses of colour and the beetle...well that was an endurance test in perseverance! Keeping my fingers crossed my new puzzle Sunday continues once back at work. 

Time taken: approx 3 hours per puzzles 

Penelope - Arrow Puzzles (500 pieces)

I was handed this by a family member as a puzzle they hadn't enjoyed. I was free to do it and then donate to charity. It proved to be a real flashback moment as I recognised it as one from my younger years. Turns out old habits die hard, as once the edges were in place, the green table lamp soon followed, followed by furniture and wallpaper. A definite sense of deja vous. It didn't take long, I enjoyed it more than the family member, but it will be going onto charity next. 

Time taken: 1 hour 30 

The joy of puzzle friendships

Back in June my puzzle group completed our first virtual meeting complete with 'Show and Tell' via Zoom. Well, I decided to show my collection of National Trust minis. Imagine my joy when last week in the post a mystery package arrived and upon opening it I discovered another member of the group had been sorting their puzzles from home and found this little one! It came with a little letter and reminded me that through the BCD I have made some truly lovely friends - puzzles bring people together. 

Time taken: 10 minutes

Sometimes puzzles are dull...

There, I've said it! I suppose I still enjoy the actual process of puzzling, but the puzzle itself can be dull. I had a feeling this one would be before I'd even started. The box had been sat in the sun and was faded, so I hoped that meant the actual colours in the picture would be more vibrant...I was wrong. It just felt like a sea of shades of cream and brown (with the odd flash of colour). I quite enjoyed putting the bookcases together, but that was about it. Never mind, at least it was a puzzle. 

Time taken: spread over a few Sunday afternoons 

The curse of being 'good' at jigsaws

My heart sank when I saw the email - 'Jigsaw - help!!'. I had been contacted by a friend for some advice on finishing off some rather tricky sky. I sent across some ideas for sorting pieces into type etc and that seemed to be gratefully received. A few days later and no joy had been had - would I be willing to take a look? I won't go into details, but will say, that by the end of 5 hours (yes you heard me) that awful sky was done....I have nothing else to add....and never want to see this puzzle again!

p.s. I could tell you what made it hard....cut, colour...but don't want to think about it again!

Friends from across the pond

One of the joys of jigsaws is you become part of a community of people who also gain pleasure from hiding away from the real world to puzzle. Recently I met (for the first time) one of our international members of the BCD and she was kind enough to send me a number of little goodies to help me learn more about American puzzles and their history....A beautiful book, a TUCO puzzle, a puzzle which came with the local paper and one she cut herself. It was like Christmas had come early when the post arrived and despite 2 being push fit, an enjoyable day was had. 

Time taken: spread out across the day - TUCO taking 2 hours 

Sunday puzzling

I have managed to maintain my new routine of completing a puzzle each Sunday and so far have not missed one yet. These two were lovely to do with Radio 2 on in the background. Both 1000 pieces with one Ravensburger and one Gibsons.

Time taken: 3 hours each

Virtual BCD Meeting

Sadly, we had to cancel another BCD meeting due to COVID-19. However, one of our members suggested we hold the meeting online instead. All completing puzzles on the same day, uploading photos into a shared stream and then holding a Zoom Show and Tell. It took a bit of organising but the day was a rip roaring success. So nice to connect with people once more and to welcome friends from around the world. 

The theme was 'Our Country' so I decided to complete my set of National Trust Miniatures before moving onto a picture map of Oxford and finishing with a small one of the Queen Mum. What good fun was had by all!