NATIONAL PUZZLE DAY

(written January 29 on National Puzzle Day, 

Posted January 30) 

The Country Church

where people matter more than projects

where community matters more than creeds

where relationships matter more than rituals

where belonging matters more than beliefs

where God shows up in gratitude and grace

where Love lives and learns

Poem by Ruby Neumann 010923

Puzzle: "Sunrise Chapel" by Thomas Kinkade (Ceaco) 

Puzzle Assembled by Grethe Voigt and Ruby Neumann

Gifted to Trondjelm Lutheran Church on January 29, 2023 

Today is National Puzzling Day.  What better way to celebrate than gift a puzzle to my Mom's church.  I am hanging out with my Mom this weekend and it was the perfect opportunity to bring this puzzle to her church.  

In the puzzle haul I got from Mom came this puzzle.  I was already partially assembled, so I just pulled out the puzzle as it was and finished assembling it.  I had the idea of giving it as a gratitude gift to the church.  I wrote the poem "The Country Church" as my statement of gratitude.  I am reminded of country churches like the ones on "Little House on the Prairie" and "When Calls the Heart".  It was churches like that that really inspired me to hope that maybe one day there would be a community that was about community more than it was about church.  I think Trondjelm comes close to the ideal.  They are all about community.  Sure they have their programs and doctrines, but when it comes down to it, they are about the people.  The love they have for me is evidence of that.  

IT'S BEAUTIFUL BUT I'M FRUSTRATED

 

January 22, 2023 

My first ever purchased Cobble Hill puzzle is this one. The puzzle is called "New Day" It is a picture of a Mother black bear and her three cubs watching a sunrise in the fall coloured forest.   I wish I had more to show you, but this seems to be where I am stumped.  I started this puzzle on New Year's Day and it is now twenty two days past the beginning of the year and the start of the puzzle... and this is all I have.  

I have shelved it to do other puzzles more colourful and manageable.  Every once in a while, I will pull it out and find another piece to put in it's place.  At that rate, I will be seventy years old before it's completed.  

I have tried a few avenues to see if I can get a picture of the completed puzzle.  I figure if I have the piece shapes to work toward, maybe then I can get farther and see it to completion.  Nothing is showing up on the internet.  I even emailed Cobble Hill asking for a cut map, but that was not available.  They tried encouraging me with the idea that if I just hang in there, I will be proud of myself when it is finished.  I wish it were that simple.  

I have been frustrated at other puzzles.  I already did a post on my Map of the World puzzle that I didn't finish.  But that one was easier to do something creatively with to finish it without actually finishing it.  This one... not the same.  

I could just pack it up and give it to Value Village, but it is a beautiful picture and I would really value it in my collection.  It is just hard, and when I spend an hour looking at it and only get two pieces in, I am not convinced that it is a good use of my time.  I am conflicted.  How much time to I devote to a puzzle that seems to be wasting so much of it?  

February 9, 2023

I finished it.  This was the most frustratingly beautiful puzzle I've ever done. I figured out how to finish it.  I pulled out another Cobble Hill puzzle that I had in my finished collection that had the same puzzle cut (for the most part)  and use it as a background.  There were a few pieces that were modified, but they didn't hinder the process to much.  Even when I down to the last few pieces, I kept wondering how many extras I had and now many I was missing. It ended up that all the pieces I had fit somewhere in the puzzle and I was only missing one piece. It was a central piece, but with a little crafty colouring, it is hard to pick out unless you look real close. 

This puzzle was a great teacher.  I kept thinking through the final run if my life was like this puzzle.  Beautiful, frustrating and time consuming... and filled with pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere, and lots of wonder if I am missing more pieces than I actually do.  

I am thankful that I persevered and adapted.  I have said this before.  Puzzling is about creating beauty... not adhering to someone else's rules and expectations.   

2000 IS MY LIMIT

When I first got the idea to do a 2000 piece puzzle, I thought this might be an achievable task.  There was a lot of colour and variety.  There was so much going on with this scene and it intrigued me.  It was so filled with human activity: a blazing fire, snow gear, a table filled with food... but no people.  Instead, the critters moved in.  Nothing about it makes sense.  The scene is filled with the evidence of human activity, and yet no humans, only critters.  I call it "The Evidence of Humanity in the Absence of Humanity".  It made for a challenging and time consuming task, but no where near an impossible one.  

I don't think I was finished with the first puzzle when I found the Summer equivalent on the shelf at Walmart (the former home of the Buffalo puzzles in my collection).  I grabbed it in enthusiasm.  It was like completing a collection with the same theme.  When I did the first puzzle, I was still employed outside the home and puzzling was a casual hobby.  When I started the second puzzle, I was already at home full time and puzzling became an art collection for me.  

I decided to record the process of assembly for this puzzle.  I took snapshots of it at different intervals and assembled the photos into a slide show that I shared on Youtube.  

"WINTER HAS SUMMER"

I even included my summer puzzle at the end.  I was proud of my two beauties and they are two of my favourite puzzles.  

They both gave me the confidence to challenge myself in the harder puzzles.   My puzzle table won't take on a bigger puzzle, so I think 2000 pieces is my limit due to the size of my working space and the size of my house.  But 2000 pieces is enough.  I'm into puzzles for the beauty and collection of great artwork.  I would rather do smaller puzzles and have more beautiful pieces, than spend a year doing something grand.  

I look forward to my next 2000 pc puzzle which is already on my shelf waiting for its turn. 

 

1964 WAS A GOOD YEAR TO PUZZLE

 

It isn't a puzzle I would pick off the shelf to attempt myself.  It is rather lacking colour and vibrant life for the most part.  The puzzle is called "Fall in Lancashire".  It is one of the 1000 pc puzzles I got from my Mom's collection.  She was so gracious to pass along part of my inheritance while she could experience me enjoying it. 

The puzzle manufacturer was Tuco.  A quick internet search told me that they started manufacturing puzzles in 1932 and stopped in the '80's.   

What is so unique and special about this puzzle was not just the puzzle itself, but the packaging.  It adds to the story.  Mom did the puzzle and then she packaged it back in the box, mostly intact, with a couple of sheets of newspaper from the Alaska Highway News.  

It dates the puzzle packing to the month of October 1964, or maybe shortly after.  That was only a few months after Mom and Dad were married.  I phoned my Mom today and asked her if she remembered, and she didn't.  That was almost sixty years ago, so I won't be too hard on her for not remembering.  I think I have enough evidence to say that this puzzle predates me and that makes it extra valuable. 

Mom didn't collapse the puzzle, so I was able to reassemble it this morning with very little effort on my part but a whole lot of effort on my Mom's part.  I am happy to save that effort and that is what really gives me joy with this little hobby of mine.  That and discovering just how much groceries cost in 1964.  

The puzzle quality testifies to its age.  The pieces are strong and thick, but were not all interlocking, which made assembly difficult.  I am amazed at how much finesse it must have take for Mom to get those pieces back in the box still assembled.  I think she wanted to save her work, so in a way, I was able to help her... more than a half a century later.  

"NO FEELING IS FINAL"

This is the only puzzle I have done that has more than just the picture.  This 300 piece puzzle had wisdom.  It seems like the perfect Enneagram 4 wisdom.  Not often do I find a quote that as beauty, feeling and terror in the same quote.  

I got this puzzle in Walmart and there are six more of it's kind somewhere, all with inspirational quotes, but I can't find them in my travels.  I keep my eye out for more of the CALM brand of puzzles.  I think that is the addictive nature of puzzling.  It is hard to settle for just one of a collection.  

I want to experience every moment of my day with the assurance that "No feeling is final".  Whether that feeling is dread, anxiousness or even elated happiness.  I don't want my feelings to define me.  I think they do, but that is a Four thing to admit.  Maybe I can hope to move past that admission and ride a different kind of wave.  A wave that lets me experience the plethora of emotions and then move on.  I can't see much around me when I get overcome by my emotions.  I long for the balance in my life.  I keep hoping.  

It wasn't a dynamic colourful picture, but it gave me some words to hang on to.  So for that, I am glad it is in my portfolio.  

THE FINISHED UNFINISHED PUZZLE OF THE WORLD

 The biggest decision in starting a new blog on "Puzzles with Stories", was "What puzzle do I start with?"  It didn't take long to pick the most unique puzzle I could find.  It was the one that I technically didn't finish.  

I got this puzzle from Winners compliments of a gift card I got from my sister in 2020.  It is a 1000 pc puzzle and I thought it looked colourful enough to have a successful go at it.  I did well up until the pale blue water that makes up a good portion of the puzzle.  The puzzle is ribbon cut with all the puzzle pieces being the same size.  It became a chore to even imagine finishing it.  So what I did was bring a little creativity into it.  

I went to the Dollarama and got a piece of baby blue poster board.  I was amazed that the colours matched so well.  Then I took some of the remaining puzzle pieces and glued them sporadically on the poster board where I could fit them.  Voila!  A finished puzzle.  

I am pretty proud of this piece of artwork, because it is the picture of what is possible when the task seems impossible, or a big waste of time.  

I am not a rules person when it comes to jigsaw puzzles.  I find a way to break most of them.  But for the most part, I do like to finish my puzzles and keep them intact.  This one proved an exception, but in the end, I found a way to creatively finish it anyway.