Minipause

A friend who knows that I love puzzles gave me this little take-a-break present. Consisting of a mere 100 pieces (easy peasy!), it took only about 20 minutes to assemble it, but still, it demanded enough focus that it took my mind off other matters. 

There's something about doing a jigsaw that takes me to some other shore, a place where other concerns disappear. Even so, there's usually some kind of system involved in putting one together. 

Border pieces or 'edge' pieces are often an easy place to start. Their straight cut along one side makes them easy to find. 

Truly, the easiest part for me with this puzzle was the lovely little underwater fish. 

A lazy day, but still, a treat to have such a fun kind of distraction. 

Brain food

Our mother used to tell my sisters and me that fish was food for the brain, and did her best to convince us that eating it would make us smarter. She must have believed it was an ingredient we needed as she was often telling us to 'smarten up.' In truth, I always suspected the fish theory may well have simply been her way of getting us to eat sardines.

But the reason I'm thinking about brain food is that today is officially Puzzle Day. And if the reports are at all true, I've not (as my mother liked to scold) been wasting hours of my life by engaging in puzzles. As it turns out, they provide exercise for our brains. 

We 'puzzlers' (the official term for those who enjoy doing puzzles) are a tribe all our own. This is a term I happened to learn from a very fun book I read last week with the puzzling title of Jigsaw. 

I'll admit to being kind of a puzzle geek, as I love Sudoku, crossword puzzles, Wordle, and as you can see from the photo above, jigsaw puzzles, the biggest time-passer of all. 

Both of those puzzles were gifts I received at Christmas, but I haven't started either one of them. The round one, with 500 pieces looks challenging, but possible. While the beautiful Avatar-like image on the other is tempting, its 1,000 pieces leave me hesitant to even open the box, as 750 is my usual maximum. Still, with a new month approaching, the time may be nigh for new horizons with bigger challenges. 

Wouldn't you know--in the process of poking around for this post, I learned that eating fish maybe really does make you smarter. Once in a while I guess those mothers of ours managed to get a few things right after all. 

Unofficial kindness

And a small kindness at that. It's an idea that was suggested to me by my friend who makes Christmas cards with me, and who also (like me) loves doing jigsaw puzzles. 

We often lend each other puzzles back and forth and she came up with a suggestion that might sound like 'cheating' to some, but made good sense to both of us. When you take apart a puzzle, bag up the edge pieces separately from the rest. In other words, you're giving the other person the kindness of a head start on completing the puzzle!

It might not yet be the official date to perform our random acts of kindness, but there's nothing wrong with doing such acts any old time.  

Thrift store treasure

It's something that goes back to being about ten years old -- my love of wooden jigsaw puzzles. They're never easy to find anymore, but now and then, one comes my way. 

I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend whose family had a drawer filled with amazing wooden puzzles. Often, the scenes they depicted were battles aboard old-time ships, sails filled with smoke and flame. 

This one, a much calmer scene, a mega-bargain from one of my best-loved thrift shops, may be my all-time favourite. Not only were all the pieces there, the precision of the cuts and the marvel of their varied shapes sets this puzzle apart from any other I've ever done. 

There were a number of pieces that had very specific shapes. The two resting outside the image looked like a little house and a derby hat. There was also a complicated curving bishop's staff, as well as two plumb bells a surveyor might use. 

I'm not sure exactly how the jigsawing might have been done -- with a laser maybe?? That would almost have to be the case, as the pieces are mostly quite tiny. 

And yes, I've already taken it apart. Sadly the photo below is a bit fuzzy, but if you look carefully, you can probably see the cutest of the pieces, the bunny waiting his turn to join his friends in puzzle-land. 

Puzzling

Yesterday's meeting of the Vancouver Metro Board was supposedly the day for them to make a decision regarding the fate of the Hazelmere Valley and the area around the Little Campbell River. But one of the directors (a Surrey City Councillor) made a last-minute motion that would pause the matter. Despite some grumbling from others on the Board, the motion squeaked past by three votes. 

I'm not sure what to do next in terms of actions to continue advocating on behalf of protecting the area. 

So that's why I'm puzzled.

But I suppose that state is somewhat appropriate, as today--strange though it may seem--is National Puzzle Day! 

It sure seems as though there's a day for just about everything, and in light of today's observance, I'm declaring it Clear-Off-the-Table Day, so I can start working on a puzzle I've been delaying for too long. It will be a nice diversion from the research and reading I've been doing, as I try to learn all I can about aquifers and groundwater and protecting the last vestiges of natural, green environment. 

I take heart though, because even before I start dealing with organizing that tumbled pile of pieces on the table, I can see quite a few hopeful spots of green.  

Which one?

No, I'm not trying to decide which Nancy Drew Mystery to read (though that might be fun too). I'm trying to decide which jigsaw puzzle to do. Why? Because today is Puzzle Day!

I'll admit that I have quite a few choices, and that might be one of the reasons I'm not sure which one to do. 

One of my favourites is an old wooden puzzle I found at a second-hand store many years ago. Even when I bought it, I knew it was missing a couple of pieces. I didn't care. 

There's something about the way the thick pieces click into place that is much more satisfying than the non-sound that comes from putting cardboard pieces together. 

I suppose if I get desperate, I can open one of my precious Beatles' puzzles -- ones I've kept sealed in case they ever get valuable... this one, which is not only of my favourite of their films, but might well be what I'm asking for: Help!  

Rainy day weekend

And on what's supposed to be a long weekend.

The Victoria Day weekend is supposed to mark the beginning of summer. It's the time people put plants into the ground, or bring their indoor ones outside. It's often observed by having the first barbecue or picnic or trip out of town.

It's also always been the weekend for the Cloverdale Rodeo, though this year, along with just about everything else that might draw a crowd, it's been cancelled. It's not something we always go to, though last year, with out-of-town guests visiting, we took in one day of the fair.

Because yesterday was dark and gloomy and rainy all day, I figured it was a good time to start a jigsaw puzzle. I'm lucky enough to have a few on the shelf, as they're another of those everyday items whose price has skyrocketed owing to the demand from bored stay-at-homers.

The photo on top shows how far I managed to get on the first day of puzzling. Not even all of the edge pieces in place, as several of those were well disguised (at least to my eye).

Today after breakfast, I dove back in, trying to put the rest of those cheesy pieces in place.

Not too surprisingly, the Swiss cheese section was the hardest. Even looking at the picture on the box didn't seem to help.

Slowly, trial-by-error, taking a piece and trying, trying, trying it -- that was my method, hardly very scientific, I am sure.

But as I fiddled, my mind wandered, and I thought there are probably quite a few things in life that we manage by exactly the same method. We try something, if it works out, great. When it doesn't, we try to get over it and move on, and try another way of addressing the problem.

And then, just as I was in the home stretch on the cheese, to my surprise and delight, the sun burst forth.

I don't really think that had a lot to do with my finishing the puzzle, though the coincidence felt fun.

And who knows, maybe next time there's a rainy long weekend, I'll have to see if making a puzzle works the same weather miracle.

It's been a long time...

 ...and will be an even longer time until this happens again. The event? A numerical palindrome. Yep, along the lines of 'Madam I'm Adam' or my perhaps favourite, 'Do geese see God?' But not made up of letters, but numbers.

And today is one of the most remarkable of such dates, as the palindromes only seem to build and build on each other -- worth reading the article in this link for the many crazy details.

I'll admit, this morning when I'd looked at the number residing at the bottom of my computer screen I'd thought they looked cool. But it was only while I was watching golf on tv (yes, one of my many guilty pleasures) that one of the commentators remarked on the palindromic factor. So yes, I tried finding a way to create an image that would suit it.

Badly posed, but this kind of date event won't happen again while any of us are around. In fact, this level of palindromic effect in a date won't occur again until 03/03/3030 -- and who knows whether we'll even be on the same digital version of the Gregorian calendar when that rolls around. I suspect "Stardate whatever" might be more likely by then.

And yes, the most lovely representation of the figure two I found during my search was one of the brass swans who keeps me company on the ledge above the sink when I do the washing up. A very special and graceful number two for this pretty special 'two' of a day.