'Do A Jigsaw!'

 With things the way they are at the moment most of us are being forced to spend more of our time indoors. Now, many of you will see that as being ’stuck’ indoors rather than a blessing but it doesn’t have to be as miserable and frustrating as that!

All you have to do is have the fortitude to get yourself off of your mobile phone and switch off the T.V. and your computer for a while and take a leaf out of how people in the 1950’s and 60’s passed their time indoors. 

Now, before you get ‘too excited’ I’m not talking about how  it was common to have 6 sisters and 5 brothers back then I am talking about ‘hobbies’! (lol)

Why not clear a space on the kitchen table and then have a go at a jigsaw puzzle?  A decent puzzle takes up a LOT of time! If you choose a puzzle that you like the look of and am interested in the subject matter of then spending some quiet ‘down time’ scrabbling through boxes trying to locate just the right piece can be absorbing, relaxing fun!

Sales of jigsaw puzzles have ‘gone through the roof’ during the last few months and websites like, Jigsawpuzzle.co.uk  Gibsons Games, The Works, W.H. Smiths or of course the habitual Amazon (though they are often more expensive here because sellers know we are all lazy!) are all great places to browse.

I am a fan of the Yorkshire Artist, Trevor Mitchell because I LOVE all of the retro, typically English scenes he paints. Thankfully, a lot of Trevor’s work gets picked up by Gibsons Games and their latest addition to the ‘Mitchell Canon’ is one of Trevor;’s finest of all works - ‘The Queen’s Speech’.

Just take a look at this wonderfully emotive picture! Trevor may have taken his inspiration for the painting from life in the 1950’s but - give or take a few details - this is EXACTLY the kind of Christmas I remember as a kid in the 1960’s and early 70’s. Gibsons have only recently released ‘The Queen’s Speech’ as a 1000 piece puzzle ( it was previously only available as a 500 piece version in a four puzzle set) and I am awaiting mine in the post any day now!

My Nan’s house in Battle Rd was almost a carbon copy of this front room!

Photo Courtesy of Jigsawpuzzle.co.uk

The only major difference being that at my Nan’s it wasn’t actually the front room of the house at all but the smaller, easier to heat room that led out to the back garden. Nan therefore had glass windows and a door rather than a brick wall as far as the back of the picture is concerned but aside from that the fireplace, mirror and positioning of the chairs is pretty much the same. 

I grew up associating ‘Quality Street’ chocolates with Christmas and Nan’s T.V was in roughly the same place as in the picture so this is how we al would have huddled around to watch the Queens speech on Christmas Day. I used to have a lot of Matchbox cars rather than Corgi Toys and none of my family have ever been ones for much booze (boring gits!) but Nan would sometimes break out glasses of ‘Bristol Creme’ Sherry after Christmas Dinner. The clock on the mantlepiece and Christmas cards either side of it are accurate as is the positioning of the grate (though Nan’s was much smaller than that). 

There is NOTHING like a real fire to ‘cuddle up around’ at Christmas - especially if it is FREEZING in all the other rooms - and Nan did use to but both the T.V. Times & Radio Times magazines and put them in a magazine wrack just like the one you see in the picture (though it was in a different place next to Nan’s chair, which would have been out of picture at the end of the table far bottom right).

For all of the reasons above and because I miss my Nan (who died aged 104!)

My Lovely Nan (Ronnie)

I LOVE this picture and hope to spend many an hour trying to put the puzzle of it together over Christmas this year when my copy arrives from Gibsons!

Trevor is a brilliantly talented Artist and seems to me (from the few e mail exchanges I have had with him) to be both a ‘Christmas person’ and a thoroughly nice chap. So, why not treat yourself or someone you know this Christmas to something of Trevor’s? If you visit https://www.trevormitchellartist.com you will find his website. I have also bought two of Trevor’s 2021 Calendars from the Calendar Club website so if puzzles aren’t quite your bag but you love a bit of nostalgia then maybe that is the route to go down?

Whatever, don’t just sit about frustratedly in front of the T.V. or ‘mindlessly’ browsing the Internet on your phones during lockdown - re-connect yourself with something simple, fun and festive and before you know it you will be smiling again!