Developing a strategy

You know a jigsaw's difficult when the sky is the easiest part. My battle with this thousand-piece puzzle continued today when I developed a new strategy.

Stage one: I put all the brick-wall pieces into the lid - they are undoubtedly the hardest part, and all I've managed is to hook four or five pairs of pieces together. Stage two: I turned the puzzle upside down to work on it. That way I couldn't get distracted by the picture. It enabled me to concentrate on colour, texure and shape. 

Gradually, as I anchored a number of floating bits, there was visible progress. After a morning at it, the thing begins to feel more like a puzzle and less like a chore. Once I've done all but the (two) walls, they will be all that remains. It will be like doing a cloudless sky - a matter of ploughing through shape-matching. Any nuances of colour or brush stroke apply across the board so there are no helpful hints.

Enough of jigsaws! I started the day by doing Wordle in two for the first time in a while. Also baked three banana loafs: one to eat, one to freeze, and one for Family B. Mr PP worked awhile in the garden once the wind had died down a little. Still quite cold, though!