Monday, November 24, 2025

Songbirds

 Puzzle Lab, 285 pieces. This might be my favorite Puzzle Lab puzzle yet--the color line cutting recalls Fathom's precision (though I think Puzzle Lab helped itself out by choosing an image with black lines to do the color line cutting on). 4/5





Kristian Adam, Shroom Town

 Artifact, 211 pieces. Elaborate mushroom border! 3/5



coffee cup


I don't love multipiece whimsies that behave like push fit



Peace of Heaven

 Elms, 458 pieces. I like a good sky, where you have to use shapes mostly, and this delivered (though there were also small color variations that could be untangled), including with nice dropouts. 7/10






Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Delicate Beings, Jena DellaGrottaglia

 Liberty, 537 pieces. A lot of fun--the whimsies are incredibly elaborate, and I like how the bird was made of different shapes than the rest of the puzzle. 4/5










Chakrasamvara and Consort Vajraharavi

 Elms, 408 pieces. Tough for its size because of the highly similar colors throughout; the cutting seemed a little below Elms' usual standards, with a couple of unusually big and unusually small pieces. 6/10





Perkins Harnley, Hotel Melrose Lobby

 Puzzly, 250 pieces. Strip-cut with whimsies, thin wood--like older Wentworths. Unusual image--the dull mauve and light green colors don't often predominate in puzzle images. 3/5






Monday, November 17, 2025

Moon Castle

 Apro Vision, 152 pieces. This seems like one of the myriad hard-to-distinguish laser-cut 
makers from the 2020 explosion--thin wood, shaped edges. The unusual shape is the standout. 3/5





Majestic Harvest

 Foxsmartbox, 487 pieces. Image looks dark but had sufficient guidance; paper peeling from a lot of corners. 3/5





Vintage Travel Abruzzo Rome

 Peaceful, 250 pieces. Another early-seeming Peaceful. Image a mix of big chunks of color and a bunch of details. 3/5






Monday, November 10, 2025

Carnaval

 Peaceful, 250 pieces. Has the feel of an earlier Peaceful, with a couple of whimsies copied straight from Liberty and some fragile pieces. 3/5





Yury Namestnikoff, Dali's Clocks

 FoxSmartBox, 305 pieces. Clock- and Dali-themed whimsies, including a multipiece whimsy around the female figure that evokes the Dali painting "Sleep" (Reddit kindly informed me). 3/5



whimsy recreation of Persistence of Memory, L; Sleep, R

Closeup on Sleep whimsies


The Ocean State

 Stave, 65 pieces. Another fine puzzle for a state I rarely visit. Bonus points for Mr. Potato Head! (I don't envy the person selecting the themed whimsies.) 6/10





Bonus from Stave:




Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Vintage Christmas Postcards

 Liberty, 744 pieces. I was in just the right mood for this puzzle, which I think has pieces a bit smaller than current Liberty average so it fit well in my usual puzzling space despite the high piece count. The whimsies were well-themed. 4/5










the ski area