Ten Things I love Most in the World

October 12, 2018October 12, 2018 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 21 Comments

Ten Things I love Most in the World…

1. Mother Nature has been the number one love in my life for longer than I can remember. My idea of heaven would be to live in a forest with a river nearby.

2. The way I feel about horses goes way beyond love. Sometimes I think I must have been a horse in a former life, from the strong and powerful connection I seem to have with them.

3. I have always been a bit of a freak for thunderstorms. The noise, barely contained power and the majesty of the lightning speaks to me in ways I cannot describe.

4. Whenever I have spare time, and even when I don’t, I have to track down a puzzle. It can be a jigsaw, a computer game, or a simple game of solitaire. My idea of heaven.

5. Something about the smell of the sea communicates directly with my soul, and I think I could easily live on a beach. They say that salt water is a good healer, so how much more could sea water do?

6. The art of bonsai has always fascinated me, and over the years, I have collected some of my own. Like having children, they need so much care and attention, but give back so much more to their carer.

7. My love of writing has grown out of my love for reading, and my appreciation of all my favourite authors. On the good days when I don’t doubt my abilities, it is the best thing in the world.

8. Most people hate the rain, but I love it. Getting soaked to the skin is an amazing experience, and if there is thunder and lightning too, so much the better!

9. Making people laugh has to be one of the most rewarding things you can do. I love to know I have lifted someone’s spirits just enough to make them laugh.

10. I never thought I would enjoy blogging as much as I do, when I first started. In the beginning, I was hopeless, didn’t have a clue and knew no one. So much has changed since then…

Ten Things I Hate Most in this World

1.Cruelty of any kind comes top of this list, for there is far too much of it in this world. It is far easier to be kind.

2. Rudeness comes a close second, as I cannot understand the need for it. It closes too many doors that eventually will refuse to open again.

3. Arguments. Every time I get involved in one, I want to crawl away and die. Life is much too short to argue.

4. Hangnails are my least favourite thing, and I get some shockers. No matter how careful you are, your fingers get sore.

5. I hate the cold. As I get older, it’s becoming a real problem. Sometimes, even on a mild day, I have trouble keeping warm.

6. Things that go wrong. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and try very hard to get things right, but far too often these days, it just doesn’t happen, no matter what I do.

7. Computers. These should be on the top of this list, as they tend to drive me insane. They are illogical and unreasonable, but we know we cannot do without them.

8. Feeling helpless. Closely linked with number seven, this is what PC’s do to me. Nothing else on this planet can make me quite as angry as a computer.

9. Injustice. I hate all forms of injustice, acerbated by the certain knowledge there is nothing you can do about most of it.

10. Weakness. Mainly my own. So many things I wish I didn’t need to do, like the biscuits I cannot leave alone. How I can be so strong with everything else, but such a wimp when it comes to food is a mystery…

Would anyone like to share their likes and dislikes on our post? We would love to hear from you…

The Sunday Whirl #Wordle Puzzles

August 7, 2018August 7, 2018 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / Leave a comment

Wordle Puzzle #363

I shall not refrain from wandering through new worlds

Beyond the Universe

My skin and bones, like stones and shells, gathered from some distant sea.

Am I bound by shame?

Must I always walk in the shade, my guilt a weight too heavy to carry?

I must find a place to lay it down, to pass it on

Allow it to twine with another soul.

Let them carry my burden a while.

In my heart, I know the soul I am thinking of

For we were bound by an invisible skein from birth.

No judge’s wig can sentence me more than I have myself.

I must keep searching for a way to set us both free…

The Crystal Horse (or my nemesis?)

May 16, 2017May 16, 2017 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 12 Comments

Most people know that I love puzzles and horses, so I was delighted when my son gave me this crystal horse puzzle for my birthday recently.

I had done these puzzles before and looked forward to completing this one.

Inside the puzzle box were 98 pieces of complicated and impossible looking clear plastic pieces, and one ridiculously basic instruction sheet. Was it my imagination, or did this puzzle look so much more complicated than the others I had done before?

Day One

For some reason, I decided to start with the horses head and quickly managed to assemble nearly 20 pieces, including the front legs.

That was when it began to go wrong. None of the pieces seemed to fit, and it was beginning to look as though a piece could be missing. I continued to try them all, but eventually stopped for the day sensing defeat waiting just out of sight.

Day Two

Today, I abandoned the head and turned my attention to the rear end of the horse. This was such an intricate puzzle, the pieces were small, fiddly and impossible to see clearly, for they were three dimensional with several layers and shapes in each piece, and my eyesight is not what it was. Using the chart and the numbered pieces, I sailed along and was soon halfway along the horse’s body before being stuck again.

Round about now I was wondering if I was getting too old for such a tricky puzzle, and I ended up walking away, feeling inadequate.

Day Three

I spent a long time looking at the charts, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong when something occurred to me. To read the chart correctly, you have to locate the number on the grid before you remove a piece from the framework. The pieces themselves are not numbered, and this was where the problem lay.

I double-checked the frames that the pieces were fixed to and it would seem I had one of them the wrong way around. This meant I had been using the wrong pieces.

For two long hours I struggled to continue, but with a sinking heart, I realise that this might be one challenge too much. I might just have found my nemesis.

So many years doing puzzles of every denomination and I had managed to find one I just couldn’t do.

Day Four

With a heavy heart, I had another look at the incomplete horse. I even watched someone assemble the same horse on YouTube, but it didn’t help me at all.

Then I remembered how I usually deal with frustrating jigsaws, trying every piece systematically until one fits. I sat down with more optimism than I thought possible and after a few minutes, a piece fell into place. The puzzle God must be smiling today, I thought and promptly fitted a few more.

Thirty minutes later, I slid the fixing rod through the horse’s body and fixed it onto the stand. The puzzle was finished and my sense of achievement knew no bounds. Not least because it meant I hadn’t lost my Mojo after all…