pumpkinstrokemarrow

For puzzle 16 we had been looking out for a rendering of one of the sunken gardens at Hampton Court which brought out the subtle patterns of green, rather than just focussing on the flashy colours of the summer bedding plants. Not quite the same thing as puzzle 7 of 25th April at all; the focus there was more brown brick and green boring.

Eventually, last week, we ran one down in the Sue Ryder shop at Wells next the Sea (entirely appropriate given that FIL was staying at the time at an establishment operated by the organisation started up by her (Sue Ryder) and her husband (Leonard Cheshire)). A Falcon deluxe 500 puzzle, £3.50, the box rather faded, probably the result of sitting behind an ozone filled seaside shop window for too long, with the puzzle itself having been done at least once and with a couple of split prongs, but otherwise in good condition.

Started by sorting to edge, skyline, sky and rest. Did the edge, then the banqueting house at the right of the picture, a banqueting house which happened to be open to visitors one Sunday earlier this year (see 17th January). Then moved onto to the paths, then the garden wall, on this occasion not being tempted to an early attempt on the rest of the skyline.

Next the flower beds, made easier by their arrangement into sub-beds of distinctive colour and texture. Made harder by doing the jigsaw on top of a table cloth on top of one of those insulating mats which you can still buy from John Lewis. This one had been folded for some time with the result that the creases did not lie flat and the jigsaw had to make its uneven way over the humps and bumps. Most unsatisfactory.

At this stage finished the skyline before moving onto the pink flowers occupying the bottom right of the image. Then the grass, then the green band running across the middle. Then the pudding trees to the left.

Last but not least, moved onto the sky, large enough to justify sorting and with the illustration being taken at this stage of the proceedings, clearly showing the pre-eminence of the prong-hole-prong-hole configuration. There was enough variation in colour and shape that quite a lot of pieces were spotting without having recourse to trial and error. Most satisfying, ample reward for the slog of the intervening trials. Solution from left to right because of the stronger (and so easier) colour variation on the left. I was slightly slowed down by error in the middle of the sky edge, but not too much, it turning out that the error was no more complicated than the switching of two pairs of pieces.

As far as I can remember, four pieces met at every interior vertex. No overhangs; a regular puzzle.