Paradise Sunset,

puzzler19091 Comment

This was my first Vermont Christmas Company puzzle, and I’m afraid I wasn’t impressed with the quality. There were a few false fits, but the worst problem was how loose the fit was and that pieces wouldn’t stay together. I must have done the bottom edge at least three times. I have no idea if this is typical of the Vermont Christmas Company, and I’m unlikely to find out as the puzzles are not available in Europe – this was lent to me by a friend who got it in the USA.

The image was more entertaining than I was expecting. I thought all the vegetation might be difficult, but it was easy to distinguish different types of vegetation, and there wasn’t much left of the palms after all sky pieces had been placed, so it ended up being pretty easy. One piece missing, although it’s hard to spot (in the second palm from the left).

Paradise Sunset by Dominic Davison, Vermont Christmas Company, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 25, 2025.

For the puzzle challenge this is #23, a loaned puzzle.

Great Wave off Kanagawa, 2025-03-22

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I really like this painting, and it was nice to do as a puzzle, although not all that easy. I think they have added some new extra waves in order to fit the panorama format – all other images I’ve seen only have the large wave in the middle. This puzzle was a Christmas present.

Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai, Eurographics, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 22, 2025.

For the puzzle challenge, this is #25, panorama.

White Room, 2025-03-16

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I loved this installment in the Lost Places series! It was just enough challenging to be really engrossing, and I found myself unable to leave the puzzle table before I’d finished. I did the yellow sofas and the dark parts first, but even in the white parts there were plenty of clues, so it wasn’t too difficult.

For the puzzle challenge, this will be #19, “White”.

White Room, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 16, 2025.

Campfire Romance Under the Stars, 2025-03-14

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This was fun and easy! While this is a Schmidt puzzle, the same image is also available by Buffalo. For my puzzle challenge, this is the bonus challenge for March, which is the song Northern Lights (Revontulet in Finnish) by Anssi Kela, who is the first of this year’s artists that I’ve actually heard about. I still haven’t heard the song, though.

Campfire Romance Under the Stars by Lars Stewart, Schmidt, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 14, 2025.

Doors of USA, 2025-03-07

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I would have preferred more colourful doors, to be honest, like the bright green one in the bottom row, but even like this, it wasn’t really a difficult puzzle. The dark green and brown doors were last, I think, and after that there was still some brickwork to fill in. The quality was good and I had no false fits, as usual with the larger Bluebird puzzles.

Doors of USA by Dominic Davison, Bluebird Puzzle, 2000 pieces. Completed on March 7, 2025.

For my puzzle challenge, this is #7, North America.

Peanuts Moments, 2025-02-14

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This was fun and easy! I picked out pieces for different backgrounds and then filled in the rest.

Peanuts Moments, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 14, 2025.

For my puzzle challenge, this is #11, Recognizable breed of dog. Snoopy is a beagle 🙂

The Skaters, 2025-02-09

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Despite the enormous sky this puzzle was not hard at all. It’s an older Ravensburger, from 1982, and as usual, the cut is perfect. It’s so distinct that you often see a piece and know just by the shape where it belongs, the same way you can see a piece and think “oh, that’s the other half of that lamp”. Really enjoyable puzzle!

The Skaters by Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot, Ravensburger, 1500 pieces. Completed on February 9, 2025.

The puzzle challenge I’m doing has extra monthly challenges that are communicated as (Finnish) songs, and the song for February was “In the Winter” (“Talvella” in Finnish) by Fröbelin Palikat, who apparently make music for children. Anyway, I used this puzzle for the February challenge.

[Snufkin and Moomintroll], 2025-02-02

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A Peliko moomin puzzle, as usual without a title, featuring Snufkin and Moomintroll fishing. Peliko puzzles are usually terrible quality, but this is a bit older and marginally better than the currently produced puzzles. I still had some false fits, but the quality of the paper used for the image layer was definitely better than now. I approached this as a bit of a chore, but ended up enjoying it much more than I expected to.

[Snufkin and Moomintroll], Peliko, 1000 pieces. Completed on February 2, 2025.

For the puzzle challenge, this is No.2, a bridge.

Yum!, 2025-01-31

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This turned out to be more difficult than I was expecting, but it still remained entertaining to the end. I love painted cakes in a puzzle image, somehow they’re even more satisfying than photographic images of actual cakes.

Yum! by Rosiland Solomon, Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces. Completed on January 30, 2024.

While I would happily eat everything in this image, I would probably start with this:

Chocolate and raspberries 😋

For the puzzle challenge, this is No. 6, delicacy.