Jigsaw 4, series 2

This one a Waddingtons De Luxe 500, once again 99p from the Ewell Village Oxfam charity shop. 'The Bayswater Omnibus' from the painting by G. W. Joy, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895. I wonder if the scene is at all realistic? This promiscuous mixing of age, sex and class? A whole new playing field for dirty old men? At least trains had classes. On the other hand, I dare say there were plenty of people who welcomed this uncompromising opportunity to mix with people with whom they did not, or could not, in the usual way of things.

That said, I think I like old-school paintings with this sort of business (business as in busy, not as incorporation) best for puzzles. And the texture of a such a painting seems to suit me better than that of a photograph. Not that photographic puzzles don't work for me: I just like this sort better.

See http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ (but beware unsolicited pop ups from one of those online loan sharks. Have they hacked into the museum site? Or me? What do they know that I don''t?) for further details. Including, for example, that the artist's wife and daughter posed for the mother and daughter on the left, a fact which does not necessarily compromise the realism of the scene. Note also that their image is a lot brighter than my puzzle: why do puzzle makers always seem to go for the uncleaned version of a painted image? A small complaint about the web site: searching for artist=joy does not work while searching for keyword=bayswater does.

My telephonic image of the completed puzzle pretty useless; all reflection. So this image of the puzzle box, taken from the same position, and which makes the puzzle look lighter than it actually is, will have to do instead. There is clearly something about the surface of puzzles which does not agree with the telephone.

28/11: do the edge. Notice a small number of very large pieces, spanning the space of two. Also that the puzzle is 20 by 26 pieces, rather than the usual 20 by 25 (which gives the required 500 exactly). Either the count is wrong or there were more of the very large pieces than I had realised. Perhaps, given that there turned out to be an alien piece, the former, which would have confused any attempt at counting the pieces by the good ladies at Ewell Village.

30/11 0815: started the umbrella.

2/12: more umbrella. Roses. Horse & cart and the contents of the windows more generally.

3/12 1715: completed a horizontal with the windows.

3/12/2100: the dividers between the posters above the windows largely completed, having been easy to pick out of the heap.

4/12: pushing out a bit. Start at the white at the right. Not much progress.

6/12: white hands. Pushed down the right hand side of the white at the right.

7/12: some of the fitting of the pieces needs to be forced. Rather more than usual. Perhaps the puzzle got a little damp somewhere along the way, subtly changing the shape of the pieces. More right hand white, completing five columns of it.

8/12: more white dress. Push out onto the newspaper.

10/12 0830: start on the right hand faces.

10/12 2115: top five rows complete.

11/12 1415: top seven rows complete.

11/12 1530: top nine rows complete.

11/12 2130: top twelve rows complete. Now leaving the bottom left. This brown being, in effect, the sky of this puzzle.

12/12 0915: do the dress to the right of the umbrella.

13/12 1045: drive the brown down to two halves, separated by the umbrella. As with the landscape of puzzle 2 (16th November), interesting how the eye slowly adapts to subtle changes of tone, initially invisible.

13/12 1330: down to three thirds.

13/12 1720: completed, having taken some two and a half weeks. One piece from another puzzle left over.

A good puzzle, and one which prompted an unusual desire to complete rows from the top.