Speaking of pleasures . . .

Is there anything better than puzzles, friends, and vacations? Here, a dear friend and I work on a puzzle with a detailed map of Eugene, Oregon. It was challenging–we were not able to complete it before parting ways.

Summer pleasures

This was our Montana vacation puzzle. "Making Friends" exemplifies the kind of cheery, sweet imagery that turns many people away from jigsaw puzzling. And usually I avoid buying puzzles of this sort, preferring those that are more contemporary and of higher artistic quality. A foal nuzzling a cat is the height of boring sentimentality, nowhere near as elegant as the "Crystal Palace" or edgy as Edward Munch's "The Scream!" However, the puzzle served us well on our recent trip. The Queen of the Cabin in the Woods, Jiggy Jr., and myself gravitated in and out of puzzling over the course of a week, assembling the golden retriever here, the milk stool and kitty there. Honestly, it was harder than I would have predicted. And all in all, who can quarrel with the theme, "Making Friends"?

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Channeling Homer Simpson

Hmmmm . . . cho-clate.

World travel

World map, 1630, by Henricus Hondius. Puzzle, courtesy Pomegranate. Labor, courtesy, Jigsaw Maniac. Once again, brilliant nephew dazzles with his knowledge: he says that often, these antique maps would have displayed what we now call New Zealand (only first populated by humans in the 1200's and named Nova Zeelandia in 1645) on both spheres represented on the map. (You may recall that he last dazzled me with his insights about the Tower of Babel.) Thank you for this edifying insight, o' dazzling one.

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Let there be light

Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright and Pomegranate Puzzles—"Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers." Detail is provided above—as always, click for a better view! The trick to assembling this is to work on each long, vertical strip separately. My table lined up with colorful, unconnected designs. Then I connected them and filled in the blanks. It was a lot easier than it looks!

For puzzle lovers: on a recent trip to Pacific Grove I discovered heaven in I'm Puzzled.

I'm Puzzled has products from just about every manufacturer you can think of. Puzzles are organized by themes (animals, classic art, pastoral settings, etc.). The shop has a huge range from which to choose. And the owner has a binder full of plastic sheets with little pockets, each pocket containing a couple of pieces from different manufacturers so you can see and (very importantly) feel the quality. I spent about an hour exploring and talking with the employee about the puzzle kingdom (trading info about favorites, frustrations, and so forth). And as you can imagine, I left with an embarrassingly huge bag of new puzzles. What joy. Be sure to make it to I'm Puzzled when you can.

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

An ode to cats

Meow, meow, meow. Isn't this image sweet? The pieces in this puzzle (manufactured by Lang) have the most unusual shapes—nothing predictable about them, requiring surprising twists and turns in the layout. (If you click on the images you'll see what I mean.)

Cats rule our little roost (see above). They shred our toilet paper into snowy mountains if they can. One of them hisses at our house sitters. They constantly cry for food, even though each one has an impressive fat pouch. They dominate Mr. Zippy, our dog.

Their relationship is classic love/hate, sister/sister: one minute they're licking out the inside of each other's ears and snuggling up warmly with one another; the next they're sinking their teeth into each other's nose and neck, yowling at the top of their voices.

But they can be pretty funny, too, and they're positively imprinted on Jiggy Jr. Who can resist that? Enjoy this puss—no muss, no fuss, one-dimensional and nondestructive! Cross-eyed, too!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

God there confounded the language of all the Earth

Here, it seems, is the origin of conflict, divisiveness, and inability to hear the voices of others'. As my erudite nephew said, upon seeing this, "The Tower of Babel": "This is where God did smite the people by whom he was angered." (I was impressed; nephew is almost 16, sharp as a razor, quick as a whip, funny as hell—but I did not know of his familiarity with Genesis.)

This particular rendition of Babel is part of an illuminated manuscript housed in the British Library. It is credited to "The Bedford Master and His studio, Paris, c. 1423." The Beford Master: what a mystery!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌