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Tall Sea Tale

Tall Sea Tale is a 300-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. There is something about his artwork that just draws me in. A lot of them do have a muted color palette, like this one, which makes me happy it is 300 pieces and not a larger size.

This is one I got in the haul from the friend who was moving away and didn’t want to take her puzzles. It had a ton of dog hair in the box, which was a bit annoying, but the puzzle itself was in good shape and had all of the pieces. There were five extra pieces in the box, however, that were smaller and clearly from another puzzle. I think they might have been part of the puzzle I did a couple of weeks ago that was missing eight pieces. I can’t know for sure because I already got rid of that puzzle, but even if they did go with it, it would still have been missing three pieces. Most people don’t like missing pieces or will only tolerate one or two, so I wouldn’t have tried to swap it anyway.

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What I Read This Week – June 28th

This was a slower week for reading – I spent more time with my jigsaw puzzles than with my books. I did end up finishing two books, one fiction and one nonfiction.

Fiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree – Legends & Lattes #0

I loved this book! Viv is such a great main character, and I love how the supporting characters become like a family to her. This was a fantastic prequel to Legends & Lattes!

Nonfiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby

I found this follow up book to The Color of Compromise to be both educational and challenging. I appreciated how Tisby expanded on the A.R.C. of Racial Justice that he had shared in the earlier book. A.R.C. stands for awareness, relationships, and commitment, and he explains what each of them means and why they are all needed. Highly recommended!

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Garden Goodness

Garden Goodness is a 1000-piece puzzle from Springbok. This puzzle had its pros and cons. The pieces were a nice thickness, but there were quite a few that weren’t completely cut apart and there was a ton of puzzle dust. There weren’t false fits, but sometimes I had to force the pieces together even when they were in the right spot.

I did enjoy this image. I like grid puzzles a lot; it is satisfying to complete each block of the puzzle. I also like putting together words, and there were a lot of different typestyles represented here. So while I wouldn’t say this is a really good brand, I did have a good time doing it.

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Some Flower Puzzles

I have done a bunch of puzzles over the last week, and several of them feature flowers, so I thought I would post them all together.

Wildflowers of North America is a 1000-piece puzzle from BBOLDIN, which is basically a generic Chinese brand you can find on Amazon. I knew this image might be a bit challenging for me, but I also knew that these brands print letters on the back of their puzzles so that you can sort the pieces into several sections to make it easier.

I enjoyed doing this one. It is so satisfying to do each section, and I especially like all the words at the top and bottom. This is very similar to a mushroom puzzle that I did a while ago.

Fantasy Gardens is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Liselle Larsen. This was a quick, easy puzzle. I usually reserve the term puzzle snack for 200 pieces or less, but this went so fast that it felt like one. The image is well-designed for doing a puzzle.

City Garden Rainbow Retreat is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory, who use AI to generate their art. I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it and was so happy to be able to get it.

I love the abstract nature of this image. Because it has somewhat of a rainbow pattern, I did sort by color up front. Usually, I just pull out the edges and flip the rest of the pieces over and put them in sorting trays, but it definitely helped to do more sorting for this one. This puzzle was on the more difficult side, but it was never overwhelming, and I felt like I made slow but continual progress.

I love that I have had so much time to puzzle the last couple of weeks. My stash of puzzles to do was getting pretty big, and it feels good to make a dent in it and do some of the puzzles I have been looking forward to.

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Love in the Wild

Love in the Wild is a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy, and the artist is Katy Tanis. I did this with my friend Suzanne recently. We both really loved how cute it was and were happy to be able to finish it in one sitting! I tried to pick a favorite square, but they are all so adorable that I really can’t.

I really appreciate having a friend who enjoys doing puzzles. We are hoping to get together again soon with one other friend so that we can all puzzle together. I would love to find local puzzle events or even more puzzle swaps. I have thought about starting something but I’m not sure I would know how to go about it.

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Walden’s Manor House

Walden’s Manor House is a 1000-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin. Poulin is known for his folk art and wanted this image to show the difference between the social classes of the time with this upstairs/downstairs cross-section of a manor house.

It was an enjoyable build of medium difficulty. I got it at the puzzle swap I went to a few weeks ago and was happy to see that all of the pieces were there.

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What I Read This Week – June 21st

I finished three books this week, two fiction and one nonfiction.

⭐⭐⭐/5
Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #2

I was really looking forward to this after reading the first book in the series, which is based on Pride & Prejudice. This one is based on Persuasion, which is my favorite Austen book, but I had trouble connecting it to that novel. Yes, there is the second-chance romance between Ashna and Rico, but there is also an equally prominent storyline of the troubled relationship between Ashna and her mother. There are a lot of good topics explored in this book, but some of them are quite heavy and I also would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn’t looking for the Austen connection while I was reading.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod – Austentatious #1

As you can tell from my first book this week, I am a sucker for an Austen spinoff, and this was an enjoyable entry in that category. I liked the colorful characters and found the queer romantic storyline a lot of fun!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has questions about the American evangelical church’s views on same-sex relationships. It takes a lot of courage to examine beliefs that you have been fed all of your life, and Vines shows how he and his dad wrestled with this topic and found freedom on the other side.

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Japan Map Puzzle

Japan Map Puzzle is a 500-piece puzzle from Hardie Grant Travel. A new puzzle challenge started a few days ago in a Facebook group I belong to, and it has a new prompt each week. The first prompt was castle. On a quick glance through my stash, I couldn’t find a puzzle that had a castle, so I made a trip to Community Aid to see what was available.

I was so happy to find this adorable puzzle with a map of Japan that featured Osaka Castle. I had never heard of this company, but I was impressed with the quality of the puzzle. The pieces were on the thinner size, but they fit together well and there were very few completely solid pink pieces.

I enjoyed putting together the map portion, and I also loved all the little images of Japanese things. The “beckoning cat” is so cute, and the Harajuku crepes look yummy!

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Mental Health Update – June 2025

It has been an interesting few months since I last shared how I have been doing. I was in a depression for quite a while and was having a hard time forcing myself to go places and do things. For example, I skipped a lot of church because I just couldn’t make myself go (thankfully, I can watch the services online). I even had a few days where I was crying for no specific reason.

I did talk to my psychiatrist and we increased one of my meds. She originally suggested increasing the antidepressant, but I worried about doing that because of the bipolar 2 dx, so we increased the mood stabilizer instead. (I see her through an autism clinic, so she had forgotten that I also had the bipolar 2 dx, or she probably wouldn’t have made the first suggestion.)

About three weeks ago, I woke up on a Sunday and my first thought was, I would like to go to church today. It has been the same the last two Sundays as well, even this past Sunday after I stayed up most of the night scrolling TikTok. Normally that would be a reason for me to skip, but I knew that I wanted to go. I’m glad I went because the service was great and the sermon was powerful. I even had successful conversations with a couple of people!

I am feeling a bit upset today because Saturday was my 30-year anniversary with my company and no one has acknowledged it in any way. The same thing happened with my 25th, but I chalked that up to COVID; at the time, I had been cut to part-time and was thankful to still have a job.

On a good note, I am starting to look forward to a trip my son and I are taking in September to visit my family in Illinois. I was feeling very anxious about how I would handle it given how depressed I have been, but now it feels much more manageable. Hopefully, I will still feel that way when the time comes.

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Seaside Village

Seaside Village is a 500 piece puzzle from White Mountain, and the artist is Lois B. Sutton.

This was a charming puzzle with a lot of fun details. The pieces are pretty large and decent quality. There were two connected edge pieces that hadn’t been cut through all the way but no problems other than that. I enjoyed this one very much.