Diversions and Brain Teasers

We have started doing jigsaws again, in my case to keep up my hand eye coordination and manual dexterity as well as gaining pleasure. The one we are doing at present is the Plain of  Auvers by Van Gogh in 500 predominantly yellow and green small pieces and is quite hard. 

 Over the last five years I have become quite ambidextrous and able to do a lot of things better with my left hand like carrying a mug of tea.  However I try to keep my right hand limber too by picking up and positioning these small pieces with my right hand.  

I play scrabble each day on the lexulous.com website, just one game to keep brain and hand functioning and of course I enjoy playing too as well it being a great stress buster.  I do enjoy a game in person and have a friend or two who enjoys a more sociable game every few weeks over a cup of coffee and a chat at the same time.  There again multitasking becomes more difficult as time goes by and I find I have to concentrate on one thing or the other.  

My ongoing diversion is still divesting myself of excess possessions on Trademe which is a slow business but each sale is an encouragement to keep going.  Each week it would be 5 or 6 things - a couple of books, a couple of coins and a couple of collectibles.  This week I sold an old preserving pan, no longer good enough for preserving fruit in but ideal to use as a dye pot or hold a large pot plant like an orchid.  I still have enamel basins and big pottery bowls to be listed soon.  Better than throwing them away and somebody gets these things at a reasonable price.  The things in these lower pictures are things I cherish and won't be selling in a hurry if at all because they remind me of people and places.  The picture below was painted by good friend Rae, who gave it to me to remind me of our visit to Launceston and to the Cataract Gorge in particular some years ago.  The yellow pottery bowl beside it is from a trip to Poland in the late 60s. Neither is for sale!