Zickefoose Jigsaw Puzzle--Part Two

This offended a sense of order and even, I daresay, morality in our fiery daughter. She did not see this as helping. She perceived it as poaching. For his part, Chet Baker perceived the puzzle pieces as perhaps small, tasteless bikkits, and he persisted in begging for them long after he knew they were just pasteboard.

Needless to say, Phoebe and the more pliant Liam were soon left alone to their work.

The birds are the least of it.

To say this puzzle is challenging is, um, an understatement.

It’s really coming under control now. I think this was the last day.

They all run together.

In the end, Phoebe settled on a systematic way of locating the correct blue pieces. She made separate piles of each shape, and tried every one in the pile of the shape and hue she needed until she got the right one.

 to hardest (those durn blues of mine!)

 But eventually you finish it! They let me put in the final piece!

That’s a mighty proud pair o’ kids there. I am incredibly proud of them for completing it!

 Not least because I know it can be done!

Julie Zickefoose is a painter and writer who lives on a nature sanctuary in Appalachian Ohio. She is the author of Letters from Eden and The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds With Common Birds, due in spring 2012. http://juliezickefoose.blogspot.com