Picture (Puzzle) Perfect

  I have a very sweet and talented friend who creates puzzles for her social media friends.  I am blessed to have her, not only as a friend but as a family member!  Her puzzles give me a much needed break during the day and add a bit of brightness to the world of the internet.  While on the pier the other evening, I took several pictures of the sunset.  It occurred to me that the sunsets and sunrises that I view on a daily basis could make some of the most gorgeous (albeit difficult!) jigsaw puzzles.  I am not sure just how long a puzzle of, say, a thousand pieces would take me to do with the colors in the horizon being exactly the same as in the reflection on the water.  Which piece would go where??

  The thought of jigsaw puzzles of the past and the ones of today made me giggle.  With technology giving us the opportunity to do the puzzles on the computer, we do not have to fret over lost pieces.  Back in the day, a jigsaw puzzle of a thousand or so pieces would take over the dining table in a lot of homes.  Folks were destined to eat in the kitchen because the "table was occupied"!  The tiny cardboard fragments with a bit of the image would be strewn on the edge of the table with the work space taking up the center.  Folks would wander through the dining room and invariably just "have" to set a piece in place.  The urge to find a fitting part was too strong to pass!  It never failed that one or more integral pieces would go missing between the time the box was opened and the puzzle completed. Whether the tiny piece was dropped on the floor and inadvertently swept up with the dust bunnies or kicked under the buffet, there was always the feeling of sheer agony just looking at that gaping hole in the middle of an otherwise gorgeous work of art! That said, there was also usually that one person who just "had" to put in the last piece and who would hide a piece just to have the honor of completing the puzzle.  Fretful times for other folks but this was a glorious accomplishment for the sneaky puzzle finisher!

  Not too many dining tables hold the brightly colored puzzle pieces these days.  Folks do not have time to sit back, relax with family and friends while assembling a puzzle.  What used to be a bit of good family entertainment seems to have fallen the wayside.  Sad..but at least, thanks to Tina, I can still take a few minutes to click a piece in place on my computer!  Hmmm...with that thought, perhaps I should dig in the closet and pull out one of the puzzles from years past.  Yep, I still have the ones that the kids and I did back some twenty years ago.  Maybe....

The Octopus in my Greenhouse!

  During the month of October, the Little Bayou House and the surrounding outbuildings are usually transformed into something totally different than what they usually are.  During this time, many changes are made to accommodate the Clue Hunt on the Bayou.  This is a family/close friend oriented bit of entertainment that Son and I throw together (with lots of help from Mark and Darling Daughter, Elizabeth!) each year.  It has been fun for all, it seems.  This year, however, I had to scale back things a bit.  Health issues stood in the way of any elaborate scheming so the hunt is limited to several rooms in the house, a bit of the yard and the greenhouse.  Hopefully, next year will see my health vastly improved so I can go back to a more exciting hunt.

  Still, there is an octopus in the greenhouse!  Yep, for some strange reason, I decided that an octopus painting would be the perfect prop for one of the puzzles that needed to be solved to obtain a clue.  The fact that it is an octopus has nothing at all to do with the clue hunt except that it has eight legs and eight is a lovely number!  A scrap of plywood (actually about 2 feet by 3 feet!), lots of paint and a couple of afternoons were all that was required to get my friend octopus in order....at least for my part.  Son, on the other hand, had to deal with the mechanical part of the puzzle and, as usual, he did an outstanding job of interpreting my "dream".  The prop works like a charm!  (Yes, dream.  Most of the puzzles we make come to me in dreams.  No wonder I am always tired in the morning!  I work all night!)

  Since Son hung the octopus in the greenhouse back in September, I have grown accustomed to it being there when I go in to water the plants. It will seem strange to remove it once the hunt is over at the end of the month.  I am pondering....just what do you do with a huge board painted with a sea creature??  Where should I put this guy?  Perhaps the octopus will become a permanent fixture in the greenhouse since it would seem a tad out of place in the Little Bayou House.  I could live with that!  The octopus in my greenhouse...pretty fun, if you ask me!

 

Puzzling Puzzle!

Several months ago, my grandniece pleaded with me to have a party for her at the Little Bayou House.  She and three of her friends wished to come here for a small party.  It has been a long time since I had any type of get-together for a group of teenagers and I was a bit bewildered at her request.  When I questioned her as to why here, her answer was that she just found the Little Bayou House so interesting with all of its "treasures" (aka..dust collectors")!  Well, that got me to thinking.  If I am going to go to all the trouble of having a party for this sweet young lady, I want it to be one to remember!  The wheels in the head started turning and I came up with the idea of having a mystery party!  Now, I am in the process of writing the ultimate of mystery party/ clue hunts!  I have to admit that this has turned into quite the interesting project!

The mystery party/clue hunt is not going to be the ordinary old clue hunt of days past.  This will be much different and all can participate.  The group will act as a team and solve the mystery depending on each others strong points whether it is a knack for puzzle solving, a strong knowledge of history or even physical abilities.  They will have to work as a team if they want to ever learn the outcome of the mystery.  One of the clues required a certain type of puzzle.  This puzzle will need to be completed to unravel a clue.  So, I got busy.  I had seen a puzzle several years ago and wanted to have one in the hunt. Last month, Mark picked up a bunch of damaged tiles at the lumberyard.  These are now the components of my puzzle!  I painted each with acrylic paints and then with a number of coats of sealer.  I just happened to have saved a little wooden box that held the tiles perfectly so the puzzle was complete.  It was a quick and easy task to create...but not a quick and easy task to "recreate".  It never occurred to me that this thing would be so time-consuming and difficult to put back together! The puzzle appears simple enough when first viewed (while solved) but once the parts are scrambled...it is hard! The idea is simple..match the colors on all four sides of each tile.  Color matching should not be difficult for the most part but it is the getting of all four sides of every tile to match that presents the problem!  And to think...this is only part of the clue!  This is the first step to getting the next clue.  The puzzle has to be completed and then three other steps are involved in finishing the segment.  Only after all four steps are completed in sequence can the players venture forth on another portion of their hunt! The entire hunt will involve more than thirty different puzzles interspersed among the clues. It should prove to be an interesting afternoon for both the teenagers and for me!  Hopefully, this idea will be something that she and her friends will find enjoyable!