Birthday Puzzles

So I received two new jigsaw puzzles for my birthday and have managed now to complete them both. 

They were both ones that I had asked for and the first one puts me forcibly in mind of a comment made about me by my Russian teacher to my parents at the fifth form parents evening; to wit 'even her pleasures seem very serious'. Since this was in reference to my liking for classical music I didn't see at the time, and still don't to be honest, what business it was of his, nor am I the only 15 year old in the world ever to have liked Sibelius, so it seems a strange thing to have said. But possibly even now my pleasures are 'too serious', to judge from my choice of this

Belle Epoque Paris, peopled with such luminaries as Oscar Wilde, Baron Haussman, Guy de Maupassant, Sarah Bernhardt,and of course several Impressionist artists. I have to say that it was a bit of a challenge to do, as all the buildings are illustrated in a very impressionistic style, meaning that many many pieces were neutrally coloured with nothing on them but brown or grey smudges. But it was enjoyable and I can see me doing it again 'one day'. 

Ditto to the doing again for the second one 

which I assume  is much less 'serious' in Russian teacher terms.It is however a prime example of why I never start doing jigsaw puzzles with the edge.I mentioned this in an FB group recently and many other puzzle fans were amazed, but really, look at that edge.Apart from a few protruding flowers, where on earth would you start?

Just to remind myself, should I be looking back at this in times to come, I have this week had a good sort out of my jigsaw puzzles. I'm giving myself a bronze star. The sort out is not (at all) the same thing as a cull. But I have re-organised the places in which they are kept, and noted several which belong to the 'do once more and donate to the library' group. I also noted with some surprise that I have several puzzles that I have never even opened, so perhaps I should concentrate on those once I've completed the 'once more and then they go' pile. 

I am now signing off for just over a week while the OH and I head south to the Glorious Kingdom of Fife to celebrate forty years of wedded bliss. As I have said to several people, a week's self catering near Kirkcaldy is  not the luxury train trip across Australia which  we had planned, but it's a nod in the direction of marking the occasion.