Can you spot the scarecrow?

Last week was so very cold; anyone living here in Britain will not need reminding of how exceptionally cold it has been. We have been staying warm by the fireside, reading our Christmas present books and attempting to finish my jigsaw puzzle.

How very clever of my husband to know how much I wanted a book about Edward Bawden, maybe he overheard the conversation I had whilst in this bookshop? The fact that I spoke through a megaphone is neither here nor there.

How very clever of me to buy him these two books by Susan Hill, an author we both admire. As my Irish mother-in-law would have said, a clear case of “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is my own”.



This is the first wooden jigsaw puzzle of its kind that I have ever attempted. You would think that I would have an advantage having actually painted the picture myself, wouldn’t you? Who better than I to know where the veining on the leaves go? Not a bit of it, I was hopeless, so much for my tried and trusted methods of finding the corner pieces first, this puzzle does not have conventional corner pieces, or straight edges come to that and as for those whimsy shapes, well… it was all too much for my humble brain. I am assured however that for most serious doers of jigsaw puzzles this one is easy peasy.

Can you spot the scarecrow?

Whimsies and Wentworth wooden puzzles

Those of you who love doing jigsaw puzzles may be interested to know that Wentworth puzzles have included "sleeping hedgehog" in their latest Autumn Catalogue. Wentworth makes wooden jigsaws, which are rather unusual as they contain special “Whimsies” pieces. These are puzzle pieces cut into the shape of an object, for example a garden themed jigsaw would have some pieces cut in the shape of a garden tool, a plant, a gardener leaning on a spade etc. Nowadays these puzzles are cut by laser but in the past they were cut by using a jigsaw, what else? It took ages before I made that connection. The “whimsies” were so called because they were cut on a whim.

As jigsaw puzzles go, these are quite expensive items but they are made to last and should provide hours of pleasure to generations. Some of them even achieve a cult-like status and become collector’s items, changing hands for very high prices.

When I was a child I had a jigsaw puzzle, which had a picture of ice skaters in an ice rink. I have the image firmly fixed in my mind; I must have stared at each piece for so many hours on rainy afternoons. It was my job to collect together all the straight edged pieces, paying particular attention to those precious corner pieces. I loved those special times when my father, brother or sister would join in and finish a bit for me. I even remember the doctor calling by and helping! I wonder what became of that puzzle?