At the height of the Covid lockdowns in 2020 we were all searching for something to occupy our minds. There is only so much tv one can watch and so we turned to the good old favourite - jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaws have been a family favourite of ours for many years, especially during winter evenings, so we didn't need too much encouragement to join in the Covid puzzle craze. While the craze has subsided somewhat, it is still a popular activity for our older people. It is really important for our elderly to keep the grey matter stimulated and puzzles can certainly provide a good challenge.
Here in the Retirement Village there is a community library which stocks books, DVDs….and puzzles. I think it's a great service. The residents can just pop in, choose a puzzle and return it when they are either finished or have given up on it. Mum and Dad have done quite a few puzzles over the last few years. I think Mum said they had done about 80! After every puzzle is completed a photo is taken, so there is quite a considerable photo library of all the ones they have done.
Not long after I had arrived in Adelaide, Mum was given a puzzle by one of her friends. It had turned up at a social club and nobody knew where it had come from and why it was there. We decided to do the puzzle so we could check if all the pieces were there before putting it in the community library.
Well, it turned out to be one of the hardest puzzles we had ever done. It was a beautiful picture, as you can see, but the colours were very muted and as it happened there was one piece missing. The title of the puzzle was "Moral Guidance" - an interesting title for a puzzle. But if you look closely you can see two sources of moral guidance - the village school and a church.
If we thought that puzzle was challenging, however, one of the next puzzles we did was a challenge of a totally different kind. While looking for a new puzzle in the community library I spied one that Mum and Dad hadn't done before. It was a picture of Big Ben and had a big red phone box in the foreground. Scenic backgrounds were becoming a bit difficult for Dad, so I thought all the clear colours and straight lines would make it a bit easier. It wasn't until we got it home that Mum read the words "two-sided puzzle" on the front of the box. The picture on both sides, front and back, was exactly the same except in different seasons - summer and winter. Oh no! How were we going to do this one!
First we had to decide whether we were going to do the winter side or the summer side. Mum said she liked the summer side best, and truth be told, so did I. After realising the summer side was on the back, guess who spent ages going through the puzzle pieces, feeling each one to determine the front and the back? Luckily the library does one thing that I think is an excellent idea. They separate the edge pieces from the rest and these are enclosed in a separate bag. I'm thinking of doing the same thing to all of my puzzles back home.
Once we had the pieces up the right way, it really wasn't such a hard puzzle to do after all. Thing is, we could only see the summer side. Did we really want to do the puzzle all over again on the winter side? Perhaps we could just turn each piece over, one at a time? My sister suggested flipping the puzzle between two boards. Mum and Dad's neighbour had a bright idea - preserving the puzzle between two pieces of clear perspex so that you could mount it on the wall and flip it from winter to summer as you so desire!
While I thought the perspex idea was pretty good, it wasn't our puzzle, so we went with the flipping idea. And so here it is in winter…
I don't know who the bright spark was who thought of two-sided puzzles - especially with the same picture on both sides, but at least we can tick off that challenge. Sadly there is no more time for puzzles as I will soon be back on the plane home to Queensland. However, my brother is heading to Adelaide for Christmas...
I expect this will not be the end of our puzzle adventures as Dan is a keen puzzler too, but I'd love to know if anyone else has had a go with a two-sided puzzle before or perhaps something even more challenging.
Until next time
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