There’s nothing like a good puzzle to keep your mind active – over the years I’ve tried them all: crosswords; wordsearch; Sudoko; even a GCHQ quiz book and that modern phenomenon Wordle.
The best of them all, however, is the puzzle to end all puzzles – the jigsaw.
I remember as a little child having one of those wooden jigsaws (24 pieces) with a picture of ducklings, or piglets or something just as cute.
When I became a man I put away childish things, well not really but you get the idea.
I made a return to them when I was out in Australia. Working on a daily paper meant leisure time during the day. With the children at school and Marion at work I started doing jigsaw puzzles again.
The point is in Oz I couldn’t find many “normal” puzzles: country cottages; steam trains; harbour views etc.
What I did find were puzzles based on: a multitude of gaily-coloured parrots; a wide variety of different types of bread; pantry shelves stacked with cans of food.
I think you get the idea.
They went to the local charity shop in Townsville when we decided to return to Britain.
Over the next few years the jigsaw puzzles went on the back burner until my brother happened to visit a London art gallery and sent me a postcard-sized puzzle of The Last Supper.
After that I received an occasional birthday/Father’s Day/Christmas Day present of a jigsaw puzzle not all of which I got around to doing, especially in 2024 which seems to have been a generally barren year when it comes to hobbies and pursuits.
What did happen, however, is that my daughter Sarah bought me an “Advent Calendar” puzzle.
This was a normal jigsaw puzzle box inside which were 24 numbered boxes, one for each of the 24 days of Advent.
The idea was to do one day at a time leading to the completion of the puzzle on Christmas Eve.
This was the first time I had come across a jigsaw puzzle which had pieces identified by numbers on the back. Not each single piece, of course, but all of the first box would be 1 and the second 2 and so on.
It did make it simpler as you were literally doing 24 42-piece jigsaws.
I actually ended up doing two, three or four in a day.
Although I have a couple of jigsaws I had not got round to doing I did put puzzles on my Christmas list but rather than having random ones I suggested well known paintings by artists as Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Matisse, Botticelli etc. and no more than 2000 pieces.
I thought initially a 1000 piece or even 1500 piece jigsaw might turn up.
As it happened my daughter bought me a 2000 piece puzzle of Botticelli’s Venus.
Now I have to decide whether to: do a 1000 piece puzzle of the Sgt Pepper album cover; go straight on to the Venus; or work the two together.
Whatever I decide to do it should certainly keep my mind active.
Robin's Nest 