Jigsaw Jeopardy!

I am doing the ultimate in frustration................a jigsaw puzzle!

I have always loved doing puzzles, and so has Catherine, my daughter. She used to choose the complicated ones in the triangular box, the cartoony people in swimming pools, or on the beach, busy street scenes with lots happening. Every time she started one, Andrew would sneak one piece and keep it in his room, so he would always claim to have the final piece to complete the puzzle! I lost track of how often that happened! I was forbidden to touch it as I loved to stand there and fiddle, so I would do some when she was in bed, and then undo it before she saw. The love of puzzles must run in the family because my sister often has one on the go. She has the added complication of having a dozen cats that either enjoy batting the bits around, or insist on lying right on top of it! I am also very happy to see that Mateo is a puzzle lover too, and he manages to complete some fairly complicated ones.

Just before Christmas, a donation of over a hundred puzzles arrived at the Hospice shop. They ranged from 250 pieces to 1000 pieces, and lurking among these was the Hardest Puzzle in the World. Seriously, it was even printed on the box! Not only is it a very complicated picture, it is made made even more complicated by having the picture printed on both sides of the pieces! Not only that, the picture on the reverse has been rotated 90 degrees to the one on the front! Are you still with me? Good!


So, we ooohed and aaahed over them, and everyone bought at least two for gifts and to while away the long misty evenings that we enjoy during winter here. There were gardens, village scenes, animals and countryside scenes. I chose a lovely (1000 piece, am I mad?) one of a row of striped deckchairs with a gorgeous basset hound sitting on one of them with his paws dangling over the front. The rest we priced and put in the shop.

This is what it should look like!

So, last week I decided that the Time Had Come, and spent a couple of hours sorting edges and middles and finding the corners and the next afternoon I managed to do the edge. I cannot believe how difficult this puzzle is! There are six blue and white stripy chairs and loads and loads of wood and pebbles, and it all looks the same! I spend a couple of hours every afternoon peering at pieces, trying and discarding bits, celebrating when I find one to fit, until my eyes water, my head aches and my neck has a crick in it!

This is what it looks like now!

I am determined to finish it, and then I shall send it to my sister!

These don't fit anywhere!!

And the puzzles in the shop?

All sold........except the one with the double printed pieces! That is still there!