Colorful Companions

Puzzle time again!

This gorgeous color-rich puzzle full of tropical birds was produced by the Audubon Society.

It's a 1000 piece puzzle. Besides the wonderful illustration, I was intrigued by the promise of a linen texture.

The pieces did have the look of linen. But I expected to feel a bumpy texture. That wasn't really there.

There were several things that bugged me about this puzzle. The pieces didn't meet neatly. I don't mind puzzles that have rows offset from each other. But this puzzle only had some pieces offset, and others lined up.

Worse than that, though, is how the pieces fit so sloppily. It didn't hold together at all - so Dale and I couldn't easily moves chunks of puzzle at a time. We were constantly re-piecing bits we'd already put together. That lack of quality, all by itself, is enough to keep from making this an enjoyable puzzle to complete.

The image, however, is to die for. The puzzle came with a nice large reference poster. As an image, this is a great puzzle because you can work on it in color clusters, then place whole birds into the main puzzle at one time.

Along the side, you can see other puzzles in the series. I'd get them all if the puzzle quality was better. But ... naw ...

However, close-ups of the birds are worthy:

I don't mind putting in the time, though, when I can purchase a $15-$20 puzzle for only $3.00 at a thrift store. There's easily $3.00 worth of fun.

By the way, that missing green piece in the upper right corner in the first photo ... we found it. Our robot vacuum kicked it out from under the couch. I was able to add it back into the box so it's there for the next person who tries to put this puzzle together.