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.