Puzzles

It started during our 4-week lockdown but now I usually have a jigsaw puzzle on the go most of the time. It’s quite good because I can listen to the news or music or a game show and still do the puzzle.

There are masses of them out there and many of them are of excellent quality.

Hania bought one on our road trip in Thames which was quite difficult and had only one piece missing. It was a street scene from France.

I did actually complete it. Took about 6 weeks.

So then I got interested and looked around but the shops were all sold out of course.

One day while browsing I saw this and had to have it.

It’s a really high quality puzzle but completing those two dark/blue to black bits was a real challenge. I was reduced to shape sorting and trial and error that seemed to go on for weeks.

And then, horror!

I probably lost it myself somewhere but those lovely people at Pomegranite have said they will find it and send it to me when they have time. They are really busy over there in the USA as one can imagine.

So I couldn’t resist another from their collection.

Which I completed fairly quickly.

It was fun and both these puzzles gave me an increased insight into the art works as well. For example, I never noticed the lock of beautiful golden hair escaping from the tight bun of the female character – yearning for a little romance no doubt, or at the very least, wondering a bit about what might have been.

Not that puzzles is all I’ve been up to I hasten to add. There was the planter and the privacy screen, painting the decks, seeding the lawn, spring planting and generally sitting drinking beer watching the world go by. All very important jobs that needed doing

Basically we are still in lockdown although we do have a bigger space to play in now.

Hopefully we will travel again soon.

Meanwhile, the contrast between our little election and that over in the US couldn’t be giganticer (yes, I know that’s not a real word). Just watched the final debate between Jacinda ‘Cindy’ Ardern and Judith ‘Crusher’ Collins having watched what Dana Bash called a “shitshow” live on CNN. Potty-mouth Dana – but you do understand where she’s coming from.

There was actual debate of the issues, there was some, but not a lot, of cross-talking. There was only one real flash point over Collins insisting that Ardern would be forced into a “wealth tax” by going into coalition with the Greens. The Green Party, I love them but they do have a habit of making crazy social and economic policies that would never fly. Perhaps one day they will take to heart that politics is the art of the possible. Perhaps one day the Bernie babes will too. One assumes (hopes) that they learned their lesson last time around. All it takes for Trumpism to triumph is … and blah blah blah.

Anyway half the electorate in NZ have already early voted. The numerous polling stations have more staff in them than voters. No queues for us.

Maybe, just maybe, we will legalise cannabis although the polls say no. The only strong feeling I have is that they are quite attactive plants to grow, Hania will be happier and poor people won’t have either to pay hundreds of dollars to get a medical prescription or buy a dangerous synthetic made in a backroom somewhere.