Fingering Zen

Puzzle: Cholmondeley Castle

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. It is surrounded by a 7,500 acres estate.

In the 18th century Hugh Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Cholmondeley had created gardens around the house, both kitchen gardens and orchards to provide food for the household, and also pleasure gardens. The pleasure gardens would have been formal in style as …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.6cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal chateaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards. The city of Fontainebleau has grown up around the remainder …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: The Drakensberg (“the Dragon Mountains”) is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to 3,482 metres in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba (“barrier of spears”), and in Sesotho as Maluti (also spelled Maloti). Its geological history lends it a distinctive character amongst the mountain ranges of the world. Geologically, the range resembles the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia.

The …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. These plant communities cover approximately 9.4 percent of the Earth’s surface (or 30 percent of total land area), though they once covered much more (about 50 percent of total land area). Although forests are classified primarily by trees, the concept of a …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Lilium longiflorum, often called the Easter lily or November lily, is a plant native to the Ryukyu Islands (Japan) and Taiwan. It is a stem rooting lily, growing up to 1 m high. It bears a number of trumpet shaped, white, fragrant, and outward facing flowers.

From the 1890s to the early 1920s, there was a thriving export trade of bulbs from …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: The Mukilteo Light at Mukilteo, Washington is an operational lighthouse with non-rotating fresnel lens. It originally had a revolving Fresnel lens until 1927, when it was replaced with a fixed lens. [Wiki]

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver mapped the Puget Sound area (named after Lieutenant Peter Puget), landing on the point where the light station stands today, Captain Vancouver …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 67.31cm x 47.9cm
Producer: Milton Bradley, FoamFit series, #50653-02
Notes: Boscastle is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster. The name of the village derives from Botreaux Castle, (pronounced “But’ry”) a 12th century motte-and-bailey fortress, of which few remains survive. The castle was anciently the possession of the de Botreaux family, which became under William de Botereaux(d.1391) Barons Botreaux.

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Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: The Cote d’Azur, often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from the Italian border in the east to Saint Tropez, Hyeres or Cassis in the west.

The French Riviera coastline covers 560 miles …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: Bristlecone pines grow in isolated groves at and just below the tree line. Because of cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds, and short growing seasons, the trees grow very slowly. The wood is very dense and resinous, and thus resistant to invasion by insects, fungi, and other potential pests.

The bristlecone pine has an intrinsically low rate of reproduction and regeneration, …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as in 1816. It is located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the second largest of any state capital and largest state capital east of the Mississippi River.

Indiana is one of the most tornado-prone states in the country, ranking sixth …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Orange pekoe (OP), also spelled “pecco”, is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of black teas (Orange pekoe grading). Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within Chinese-speaking countries. The grading system is based upon the …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Eger has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Today’s Eger was formed in the 10th century by St. Stephen (997–1038), the first Christian king of Hungary, who founded an episcopal see in Eger. The first cathedral of Eger was built on Castle Hill, within the present site of Eger Castle. Eger grew up around its former cathedral and has remained an important …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: In the mid 1780s George, Prince of Wales, rented a small farmhouse overlooking a fashionable promenade in Brighton. Brighton was developing from a decayed fishing town to an established seaside retreat for the rich and famous, being close to London. George IV’s original farmhouse had little land attached to it. As his financial position improved he was able to purchase parcels …

Size: 500 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 50.8cm x 33.02cm
Producer: Cedar Key
Notes: Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to, at least, the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000 year old …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 43.18cm x 48.9cm
Producer: Hasbro, MB Puzzle
Notes: Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges.[38] In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station to Venice, …

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: Hundreds of rivers and their tributaries cross the European continent. WorldAtlas highlights those over 600 miles in length, and a few others of note.

A riverbank or stream-bank: the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream. [Wiki]

Click on a name of the river to trace its passage through Europe and see statistical information …

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.5cm x 73cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall, #40699-104
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes: In a sunlit glade, far from human sight the wood fairy happily gathers wild anemones. Full of the joys of spring, she adores the suns warm rays and delights in the freedom of Nature’s woodland bounty. [Josephine Wall’s site]