When I scrolled my Instagram this morning while enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day the app showed me some advertising for puzzles. (Scarry how they know!) Take a guess who clicked on it. I have had many puzzle fever phases and I can feel a mother one creeping up on me.

Do you like puzzles? I think I have always loved it. I remember a kids birthday at my childhood friends house. She always had a puzzle game we played. Everyone got a puzzle and we had to puzzle as fast as possible and the winner got treats. Of course she always won knowing the inside and out but I always almost caught her.

Many years later in my teens I visited my aunt. When the kids where in bed she got out the chocolates a bottle of wine and a puzzle 1,000 pieces and we started. Puzzling through the night and chatting away. We often had to finish before breakfast so it was our own challenge to make it in one sitting. Or at least before breakfast. Every time I visit her and stay over night we will start a puzzle. Later her kids joined us but the never had the endurance we had. We even have our own little system we work a puzzle.

Last year for Christmas my sister got me a puzzle and I loved it. I sat down between the years and puzzled away. Sometimes listening to music or enjoying the quietness.

Concentrating on the pieces, making progress and totally focusing on just that is a spa day for the mind. It is just so relaxing. And it is actually not just my feeling. I remember my grandma who suffered from Alzheimer and went to a day care often came back with some puzzles or picture puzzles she was doing to jog her mind. Apparently the single focus on this one task is giving the mind a break. And it helps to stay sharp.

All good excuses to get into puzzling again. And by now there are some really cool puzzles out there. I would love to try my hand in a 5000 piece one. I have never done so. Also there are some fun shapes now. This morning I saw one in a round form with a picture of the moon. Just shades of gray. It must be so tough to do.

Ok, I just had to look at some fun puzzles and here is a list of ones I would love to give a go:

• Round Moon Puzzle in gray shades
• New York Panorama all in blue shades
• Lovely Mountain Sea view with 5000 pieces
• Blue Lake as Panorama puzzle
• Calming tree puzzles like this Mystic Tree or Forest Lake or an Autumn Forest
• Whites house blue roofs in Santorini
• Color graded Seashells with 2.000 pieces
• Pattern Puzzle with succulents
• Double Sided puzzle – two in one

Most puzzles are really really ugly. I am wondering why that is. Is it really that people want to spend hours looking at this? Or is it just that producers have just no aesthetics. This is probably why I never really buy any puzzles because they are often hideous.

What’s your puzzle fever experience or do you despise puzzling all together?

Happy day

Tobia