Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
I enjoy these Charles Wysocki puzzles. This one was comfortably challenging and fun. Working alone in the evenings, I finished it in four days. One thousand pieces, the pieces fit well, and the colors variations enlivened the process. Sorry it’s poor photo. Hope you can still appreciate it. Cheers
Another jigsaw puzzle was completed last night. I worked this one alone. Started last Saturday night, I finished Thursday evening. It was fun and easy. I enjoy his stylized simplicity, how he minimally incorporates shadows and textures as lines. It’s such a contrast to my style was I was painting and drawing. Somewhat like my fiction writing, I always focus on the interplay of shadows and uncertainty. It reflects my personal philosophy that most life is part of a large band of gray confusion.
Apologies that my photo isn’t sharper and clearer. Those are pumpkins on a wagon above the hat store on the right, and white chickens in the road.
Many more Wysockis were available at the library of things. I’m passing this one on to a friend because I think he’ll enjoy it, and picking up another.
Picked up a jigsaw puzzle from our local Library of Things earlier this month. 1,000 pieces, a Ravensburger offering which is a part of series called Happy Days. This one was of Weymouth in the UK, by artist Kevin Walsh, based on old photographs.
Yes, it’s missing one piece. While that’s disappointing, this was challenging and fun, an ideal way to start puzzles in 2024.
We enjoy jigsaw puzzles at our house and do a few a year. I do most of them as my wife does the edge, walks away for a while and then returns to help finish. We usually get them from the local library of things in Ashlandia. That was the case for this one. Unfortunately, as happened with two other puzzles this year, this one was missing pieces. The first one missing a piece this year, we didn’t know it was missing one until the puzzle was done. With the second episode, a note in the box noted that a piece was missing and showed where it was missing.
In this case, nothing was said about a missing piece, and it was more than one piece. In fact, six to nine pieces were missing, including multiple edge pieces from two sides. As we didn’t know, we spent a lot of time carefully going through pieces looking for those edges.
It’s a shame, though, because the thousand-piece puzzle was challenging and otherwise fun, and a beautiful scene. Several times while working it, I thought, I wouldn’t mind being there, sitting a table with a glass of wine.
When we take it back to the library, we’re going to point out how many pieces are missing. My wife says she’s going to suggest to them that it be removed from circulation.
Been a while since we’ve done a jigsaw puzzle in our house. We were doing one a month during 2020. That dropped in 2021, and we only did three in 2022. Part of that is my wife’s eyesight has diminished. She can’t see the pieces well enough, she says, so she sort of drops out of doing them once we find the edges and put them together. That leaves me to do the whole thing, which means more parceling of time. I become almost — almost, I claim — obsessive-compulsive about finishing them.
Anyway, here it is. We acquired it from our local library of things and will take it back there once we’re done. I love its colors and ambiance of a simpler Christmas, although it looks like it was staged in an expensive home! Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 