29th December 2018 - Jig-saw time

The Son has shown himself to have an extraordinary talent for 'impossible' jigsaws (no, this is not your opportunity to unload all those horrible jigsaws of baked beans or whatever that you have lurking in dark corners.) Back to The Son; while round at friends the other evening, he more or less finished off an 'impossible' jigsaw; the sort with 750 pieces and no picture on the box. All that was left was a large area of Black.

It was a marvellous sight to see him pick up, look, place, pick up, look, place the puzzle pieces apparently without thinking, like some kind of machine. The last few pieces wouldn't fit neatly; there must have been a mistake earlier on, but we decreed the jigsaw 'finished' so it could go.

I set about a 500 piece 'kittens in a sweetshop' which friends had given me;

  doing all the jars of sweets was quite fun, but then I was left with a few bald patches in the picture and a whole pile of fur. The Son completed all the kittens in fifteen minutes (I timed him).

Good-oh, I thought. About three years ago Someone bought 'The Puzzle That Burned The Turkey'. He and I got it out over the Summer, tried it for a day or so and put it back. It is FIENDISH. So, today the Puzzle Expert is cracking on through it;

Not a puzzle for the faint of heart; no square edges anywhere, and the picture is a fuzz and the pieces are a mass of interlocking snow-flakes, and what look like gnomes and bats. Son and Daughter are further on with it than we ever managed.

We are great fans of Wentworth wooden jigsaws, especially the ones with 'whimsy' pieces. I bought these little 40-piece ones for everyone (including one for me) this Christmas;

           
        

We also bought a larger, Christmas one, which is waiting for the Right Moment, and also one with cats that we gave to my godmother and she has given back to us because 'I never do them twice - you can have it now.'

Jigsaws might well become a new Christmas Tradition.