I can’t believe the last week of weather we’ve had, or for the whole of February, in fact! While back home in Canada they’ve had the worst February since the 1930’s, here I was outside doing some gardening in a t-shirt! I rarely don’t wear a jacket in the summer, so this says something! Speaking of gardening…we’ve also been working on a fun puzzle – The Gardening World – with a spring theme!
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Ravensburger kindly sent us a copy of Gardening World – Spring to put together, and review and I was so pleased that Tristan sat down and spent some time with me on this puzzle.
You probably know that I’m often very busy, and I’m sure you’re the same, thinking I don’t have time to do a puzzle! But I’ll let you in on a little secret – those extremely busy times are also when it’s most important to remember to slow down and take some time to relax, and this is where puzzles come into play for me. I sit down with a cup of tea once or twice a day and while the kids work on their school programs or play outside, I’ll work on part of a puzzle!
I started on Gardening World as soon as it arrived by separating the pieces into edge pieces and middle pieces, cup of tea in hand. I now keep our Puzzle Handy out of its box to save room and store it on the bookshelf for easy access.
After the frame was assembled, it was time to work on the main part of the puzzle…but with all of the colours involved, I didn’t know where to start in trying to organise the pieces, and my strategy! So I let the puzzle lead me. I began with the blue sky, a part of puzzles that often are left until the end, but not this time.
Next I ran my hands through the pieces in the box to see if anything grabbed my eye. The crisp, bold colours of the flowers at the bottom of the puzzle caught my attention so I started there with oranges, yellows, and blues….I’ll just come right out and admit it now…I do not have a green thumb – though I do try every year – and I’m not familiar with all of the beautiful flowers in this scene. I recognise almost all of them as ones around our town that volunteers have planted, and some that I have sitting at the front door to plant in our own flower garden – but remembering the names – no, that’s not my forté.
However…if you’re like me, we can get some help from Pippa Greenwood, as she’s provided some helpful gardening tips right in the box along with the puzzle picture insert. How cool is that?!
Next up were the bright red watering can, and the two people hard at work, as well as their friendly dog who is overlooking their work and enjoying a peaceful day outdoors.
The next order of business with the Gardening World puzzle, was to ‘plant’ the raised beds, do some work on the shed, and start constructing the rotunda….all the things I actually need to do in our garden this year – but this is much easier, and no allergies are involved!
Now it was time to move onto some of the more ‘difficult’ parts of the puzzle – the grass, the blossoming trees, and the few remaining miscellaneous pieces missing pieces scattered here and there throughout the puzzle. Kallista and Phil were out so Tristan sat with me and helped put the puzzle to bed.
And this puzzle was done in no time! From the time we received the puzzle to the time it was completed was about 6 days, but there were a couple of days that it wasn’t touched as I was in Belfast or we had other more pressing things to attend to during the day. In the end, it took me less time than I’d expected as I was off to a slow start.
Puzzles are like everything else in life – the more you do them, the easier they become. Set yourself up with a challenge to complete one in record time, or unofficially have a competition with someone over social media to see who can complete a puzzle first…this is what I’m doing with the people who bought my childhood home as they’ve just rediscovered the wonderful world of puzzles this winter. I wonder how many puzzles have been completed in that house over the past 4 decades?
Now that the next winter storm is starting to blow in as I type, I think I’ll start another puzzle rather than go out and do gardening today!
- Gardening World- Spring 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle is available through fine retail stores and Amazon.
- The Ravensburger Puzzle Handy is also available from Amazon and retail outlets.
- Follow Ravensburger through their website, Facebook, and YouTube.
If you enjoy a good puzzle, check out these other Ravensburger puzzles we’ve reviewed:
- Ludicrous Lighthouse
- Best of British No.15 – The Supermarket
- Flying Home
