Travel-themed jigsaw puzzles have become part of my trip preparation, igniting anticipation as I piece together a scene from a future adventure. I have many reasons to love jigsaw puzzles. After all, what is more satisfying than reining chaos into order and settling a pile of pieces, or really anything, into its right place?
Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place"
My favorite part about puzzles is the dreamy scene slowly coming into view as I work away at the shapes and colors fitting pieces together, letting them catch in a groove and latch perfectly with a quiet click. Like descending from a plane or turning a bend in the road, a place is suddenly upon me in all its glory and fullness, so completely put together and awaiting my arrival.
The pleasure of the picture coming into view by a thousand pieces begins with the frame. I always separate the edge pieces out, find the corners, and build up the four sides. Then I work in patches either guided by colors or some architectural detail. I’m equally awed and irritated by the disarray, convinced that the puzzle is an impossible task then buoyed when a piece fits then another, then another, then another until one little part of the whole is complete.
Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
Like a lot of people, I started doing puzzles in earnest during the pandemic. The process suits me. I like a hobby that doesn’t require me to create something out of nothing. All I really have to do is put something back together that has come apart. I’m good at that. I also like having a guide, something I can follow as long as it’s not a recipe. Margaret Drabble, a writer I discovered in college when I had to read The Millstone, wrote a memoir about jigsaw puzzles called The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws. She describes a jigsaw as “a pursuit that lay somewhere between creation and imitation and discovery and reverie.”
She worries a bit that the hobby might invite “hostile analysis” by others who might think people who do puzzles are lonely, anti-social introverts who are no good at conversation, or worse, they are time wasters and time killers which she reminds Daniel Defoe called the worst of murders. I say if the shoe fits and all that, you can find me upstairs in a room of sunlight, with music playing and pieces scattered all around.
Recently, I completed a 1000 piece London street scene puzzle that was filled with red double-decker buses, red telephone boxes, black taxis, and smudges of umbrellas and people scattered throughout. As I worked away on the puzzle like some kind of city planner or architect building streets and Big Ben, sidewalks and cafes, I dreamed of our upcoming summer trip to England. It’s a little early to start imagining myself on the streets of London, but sometimes thinking about a planned trip is like bottled hope, an elixir of promise that I drink down with gusto.
To help in this endeavor, my daughter and I have also started an England Pinterest board, and it’s filling up quickly with suggested itineraries, cafes, bakeries, and bookstores. This serves as more of a mood board than an actual collection of specific places we will visit.
We seem to be setting the tone for our future travels with our daydreaming digital bulletin board. For we know our daydreams become expectations and soon we are giddy with joy and possibility for our travels.
When daily life is so structured with routine and the whip crack of the clock, travel dreams unleash new experiences driven only by desire. Desire summons a cup of tea in a London cafe, a copy of Wuthering Heights in a London bookstore, a walk on the moors, a spin on the London Eye, watching football at a pub, a ride on a double decker bus, and room for the unexpected. We will dream much of the trip into reality, but our best trips always include parts we couldn’t anticipate even with all our reading, pinning, and puzzling.
Growing up my Parents always had a puzzle working on our huge glass dining room table …it was nice to sit throughout the day or week and plop in a few pieces.It’s like they deliberately selected puzzles that drove myself and my 3 sisters insane!! I’m so excited for your trip to England and can’t wait to read all about it! I hope it’s either extremely long or several stories !!! 🏴