Summer is a great time for getting up and going out and exploring; whether it’s going abroad, or closer to home. The UK has many a great stately home to visit. Of course, not every day can be picture perfect, so it’s great to keep a puzzle ready when you need a little down time or the weather isn’t conducive for a picnic.
Ravensburger kindly sent us this puzzle last month after Tristan said he would like to do it. However, it’s been Kallista who has been doing more of the work on it than her brother. That’s the way it goes, sometimes, isn’t it?!
I would love to live in England where there are many of these big, beautiful estates run by the National Trust to visit. Unfortunately, here in Northern Ireland there are only one or two. How fun would it be to pack a picnic and sit out on a well-manicured lawn and pretend that you were simply dining in your own back garden.
We had a few very busy weeks filled with events for the children, after which we were ready for a little down time to relax and just be calm, quiet, and still. Or at least I did!
Kallista got things going one morning by getting up early and putting the majority of the frame together on her own. Later I helped her sort out the rest of the pieces.
This puzzle we put together a little differently because we didn’t complete the full frame first, but began working on the picnic blanket the pond, and part of the car before completing the sky part of the frame. Sometimes you just have to mix things up a little!
Next it was the grassy at the bottom of the puzzle that was completed before starting in on the driveway. Then it was time to add a few pieces here and there before moving onto the sky. We already had some of the Red Arrows and various birds flying past. Many sky pieces look similar, so I tried something new and arranged the sky pieces by their shape. Yes, that might be a little weird, but it worked well and the pieces were now found with speed and ease to complete the left half of the sky before moving onto the right half.
Now all that was left to do was the stately home itself! We worked our way in from the edges, filling in the parts with bushes and flowers, pieces of sky, and then going by the slight colour variations the rest of the home was completed.
There, it was all done in not too much time! Kallista was sure to be there for the last piece, as usual!
And she insisted that I must take a photo and include it…she thinks it’s magical how Ravensburger puzzles have a soft-click technology that means the pieces are easy to put together, but won’t fall apart so easily so you don’t have to worry as much about bumping your puzzle while it is in progress…and it makes it more fun to put away when you’re done.
- The Stately Home from the Days Out Range 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle is available through fine retail stores and Amazon.co.uk.
- The Ravensburger Puzzle Handy is also available from Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com and retail outlets.
- Follow Ravensburger through their website, Facebook, and YouTube.
If you enjoy a good puzzle, check out these other Ravensburger 1000-piece puzzles we’ve reviewed:
- Take To The Skies
- Ravensburger World Landmarks
- Which One’s Santa? Limited Edition
- Ludicrous Lighthouse
- Best of British No.15 – The Supermarket
- Flying Home
