Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Nature’s Jigsaw Puzzles
1000 Piece Panoramic Jigsaw Puzzle - Garden Birds; Eurographics
By Ferida Wolff
As our communities become more urbanized, the natural features around us tend to get pushed into the background and often go unnoticed. In “Ferida’s Backyard,” I look at the details of nature locally, from a neighborhood perspective, frequently from a backyard vantage point. It excites me to share what I see. An awareness of the natural connection can beautifully enhance our lives.
Nature’s Jigsaw Puzzles
I love doing jigsaw puzzles.
Recently, I was given a thousand-piece puzzle that showed lots of birds, which I also love. There were robins, cardinals, hummingbirds, bluejays, and sparrows all enjoying the field of wildflowers that was the puzzle’s background. So colorful.
I sat down and got to work. The puzzle wasn’t easy. It took me lots of days to finish but while I was working on it, my backyard seemed to have its own bird puzzle.
There were robins flocking on the birdbath out back looking for a drink.
A bluejay flapped them away so it could take a bath. Crows piled onto the grass, cawing as they searched for seeds. I heard chirping as I put the pieces into their right places, which felt like the real birds were encouraging me to work on the puzzle.
I am letting the finished puzzle stay on my dining room table for a while where I can see it when I walk through the house.
I appreciate getting the bird puzzle as well as Mother Nature’s actual variety of birds. Both are gifts that I value and enjoy.
Copyright: Ferida Wolff
A Puzzling History of Jigsaw Puzzles
I have been an avid puzzler all my life, but because of Covid, I have rekindled my love of doing puzzles. 1000 pieces are my jam, and I can usually finish one in the course of 2 to 3 evenings or a marathon weekend. You can find me on any given evening listening to an audiobook (downloaded from Overdrive or hoopla) and saying just one more piece...ooh one more...okay, last one...and then it's 3 a.m., and I'm yelling jigsaw! Seemingly lots of people did the same, as puzzle sales have reached levels that haven't been seen since the Great Depression. As one company owner put it, "The puzzle people are still puzzle people, only now they have more time to do puzzles. And people who had not done puzzles since they were kids...were digging puzzles out of their grandma's attic to have something to do and were liking it."
This got me thinking about the history of jigsaw puzzles; when were they invented, what is a jigsaw, and any other nerdy things I could research. Here are some fun facts I discovered.
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