TINY TUESDAY - "MAGICAL" WHIMSY PIECES

First of all, Mr. HCB has asked me to thank you all for your kind wishes for his birthday yesterday - we had a wonderful day and not only did our older son, Martyn, come over in the afternoon, but our newlywed friends popped in too, which was great as Martyn and Keith used to work together some years ago.

Our lovely next door neighbour, Lynn, brought over not one, but two trifles as a birthday gift; sadly Martyn had just left, so we asked Sue and Keith to stay and share them with us.  At first, Sue said they had things to do, but Keith’s face showed his disappointment so she relented, and they stayed.  We quickly demolished both trifles, so thanks Lynn - you are the best neighbour in the world!  I’ve put a photograph in as an extra, showing Martyn, Sue and Keith with Mr. HCB and his M & S cake, complete with candle.  A calorie-laden day but if you can’t eat lots of calories on your birthday, when can you?

The present from our family for Mr. HCB was a 250 piece jigsaw puzzle, but not just any old jigsaw puzzle, but one of his favourites, a Wentworth wooden puzzle.  On the box it says “Wentworth - traditional wooden puzzles with a unique twist”.  This one will certainly keep Mr. HCB out of mischief because not only is it a personalised Photo Puzzle but there’s no picture to show him what it is!  I think this was probably down to Martyn, as he does like to “push the boundaries”!  He did say when he gave it to his Dad, “Well you’re always so good at jigsaws, so we thought this would challenge you!”

The puzzles come in a lovely cloth drawstring bag and you can see in the photograph some of the Wentworth’s tiny and unique “whimsy” pieces that are quite magical.  I must say that I am quite surprised that it hasn’t been started yet.  If you're the sort of person who's used to doing 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles, you may think that 250 pieces should be a doddle, but believe me - and according to Mr. HCB, they are quite difficult.  The thing about Wentworth puzzles, is that there are no outside pieces, so this will be quite a challenge, especially with nothing to give Mr. HCB a clue about what the final picture will be.

I apologise for not commenting at all yesterday, but I decided that I should spend the evening with Mr. HCB - after all, he won’t have another birthday for a year!  I would also mention that comments may be a little sparse for a few days, as I have now done 15 of the recordings for my Street Challenge ready to be broadcast on Swindon 105.5 Radio and I need to edit these, so hope you will forgive me.  I may think I’m Superwoman, but I only have one pair of hands!

“Life is like a jigsaw puzzle, 
     you have to see the whole picture, 
          then put it together piece by piece!”
Terry McMillan