Home Posts tagged "landscape" (Page 9)

Tag: landscape

Puzzle: Scene in Switzerland


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.5cm x 33cm
Producer: RoseArt, Encore series
Notes: Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.

Switzerland comprises three main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, and Italian, to which the Romansh-speaking valleys are added. The Swiss therefore do not form a nation  in the sense of a common ethnic or linguistic identity. The strong sense of belonging to the country is founded on the common historical background, shared values (federalism, direct democracy, neutrality) and Alpine symbolism. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Cottage Thatch, County Limerick, Ireland


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 68.58cm x 48.26cm
Producer: Mega, Windows to the World series
Notes: Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland’s Mid-West Region. Population wise, it is the fifth largest city in all of Ireland.

A limerick is a type of humorous verse of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme: the poem’s connection with the city is obscure, however, the name is generally taken to be a reference to Limerick City or County Limerick, sometimes particularly to the Maigue Poets, and may derive from an earlier form of nonsense verse parlour game that traditionally included a refrain that included “Will [or won’t] you come (up) to Limerick?” [Wiki]

Puzzle: Villa Coastline by Ming Feng


Size: 550 pieces
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm
Producer: Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Picture Perfect series
Artist: Ming Feng was born on June 14, 1957 in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), China. Guangzhou, known as the “Flower City,” is situated in a subtropical area surrounded by lush trees, crisscrossing rivers and babbling brooks. “Nature’s beauty stirred my longing for art and its colorfulness gave wings to my imagination. I could not help but attempt to capture its beauty on paper. Perhaps that was the burgeoning of my passion for art. I was twelve.”

In 1988, Ming immigrated to the United States with his parents and settled in New York. The diversity of art there broadened his horizon while the market offered him more opportunities to show his paintings. He lived near New England’s Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, which today still remain his favorite places and the sources of his inspiration. [Framing Box site]
Notes: Beautiful puzzle cut with gaps being nearly invisible. Pieces fit together perfectly and there is no paper dust. A pleasure to assemble, glue, and display.

Puzzle: Tulip Town, Mount Vernon, WA, U.S.A.


Size: 1000 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 48.10cm x 67.96cm
Producer: Kodacolor
Location: The Degoede Brothers immigrated from Holland, eventually starting their own businesses, in 1948. Henry, the eldest, started DeGoede Bulb Farm in the Skagit County, and later moving to Mossyrock, WA. John DeGoede moved to Sumner and started the Windmill Gardens’ Nursery greenhouse and show gardens. Both Henry and John have retired, passing respective flower businesses on to their sons who now own and operate them.

Anthony Degoede, owner of the Skagit Valley Bulb Farm, immigrated from Holland to Canada in 1956, then moved to Mount Vernon in 1957 where he joined his brothers Henry and John. Anthony also helped his oldest brother Henry establish Chuckanut Show Gardens. He managed the Neal Noorlag Bulb Farm until 1983, then purchased his business which now is known as ‘Lil Tulip Town which he started twenty years ago. The family operates their bulb farm together. Their goal is to keep this farm in good agricultural production, which includes beautiful apple tree hedging which serve as car dividers. [Tulip Town site]

Puzzle: Neuschwanstein Castle


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Images
Notes: Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Fussen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner.

The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures. Neuschwanstein embodies both the contemporaneous architectural fashion known as castle romanticism (German: Burgenromantik), and Ludwig II’s immoderate enthusiasm for the operas of Richard Wagner. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Aspen Glow Arctic Wolf by John Seerey-Lester


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Keepsakes series, Reusable gift box with magnetic closure, #442220-5
Artist: John Seerey-Lester
Notes: The Arctic Wolf (Canis lupus arctos), also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a species of mammal of the family Canidae, and a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. Arctic Wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and the northern parts of Greenland.

They have lived in North America  for more than two million years. When they find a den, they make a couple of chambers for food and young. Arctic wolves live on the islands of the Canadian Arctic, and the north coast of Greenland, roughly north of 70° North latitude. The Arctic Wolf is the only subspecies of the Gray Wolf that still can be found over the whole of its original range, largely because, in their natural habitat, they rarely encounter humans.

Their habitat is extremely harsh and remote, and few scientists venture into that world during the long, dark winter – even the vast majority of Inuit live further south than the Arctic wolf. As a result, the details of their lives through much of the year are virtually unknown. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Coyote Gulch, Utah, USA


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Churches and Cathedral series
Notes: Coyote Gulch is a tributary of the Escalante River, located in Garfield and Kane Counties in southern Utah, in the western United States. Over 40 km long, it exhibits many of the geologic features found in the Canyons of the Escalante, including high vertical canyon walls, narrow slot canyons, domes, arches, and natural bridges.

The headwaters of Coyote Gulch have their origins along a 22 km segment of the Straight Cliffs, the eastern edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau. These intermittent streams merge to form larger branches, including Dry Fork, Big Hollow, the main branch of Coyote Gulch, and Hurricane Wash. The combined flow from these branches have carved a canyon up to 300 m deep into sandstone layers, before meeting the main channel of the Escalante River. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Moonlight Grace by Klaus Strubel


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Keepsakes series, Reusable gift box with magnetic closure, #442220-2
Artist: Klaus Strubel
Painting: photo
Notes: grace, –noun
1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.
2. a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.
3. favor or good will. [Dictionary.com]

Puzzle: Paradise


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.6cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox
Notes: The Paradise garden is a form of garden, originally just paradise, a word derived from the Median language, or Old Persian. Its original meaning was “a walled-in compound or garden”.

The paradise garden takes some of its character from its original arid or semi-arid homeland. The most basic feature is the enclosure of the cultivated area. This excludes the wildness of nature, and includes the tended, watered greenery of the garden. The commonest and easiest layout for the perimeter walls is that of a rectangle, and this forms one of the prime features of this kind of garden. Another common theme is the elaborate use of water, often in canals, ponds or rills, sometimes in fountains, less often in waterfalls of various kinds.

The rectangular or rectilinear theme of the garden is often extended to the water features, which may be used to quarter the garden. This layout is echoed in the four rivers of the Garden of Eden, and much of the use and symbolism of the paradise garden is derived from this connection. The contrast between a formal garden layout with the informality of free-growing plants provides a recurring theme to many paradise gardens. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA, U.S.A.


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.6cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox
Notes: Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. [Wiki]

Depicted on the puzzle is the Neptune Pool.

Construction for the Neptune Pool spanned 1924-1936. Three swimming pools were built on this site, each successively larger.

Unique aspects of the Neptune Pool include the oil burning heating system, the light-veined Vermont marble decorating the pools and colonnades, and four 17-century Italian bas-reliefs on the sides of the colonnades. [Hearst Castle site]

Puzzle: Tea Rooms


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox
Notes: A tea house or tearoom is a venue centered on drinking tea. Its function varies widely depending on the culture, and some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses or parlors that all qualify under the English language term “tea house” or “tea room.”

Tea drinking is a pastime closely associated with the English.  Tea first arrived in England during Cromwell’s protectorate and soon became the national drink. Tea drinking became a national pastime for the English. As early as 1784, Rochefoucauld noted that “[t]hroughout the whole of England the drinking of tea is general”. Nevertheless, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, was credited with the invention of afternoon tea in 1840. It spread to other parts of English society by 1864, when the female manager of London’s Aerated Bread Company is attributed with innovating the first commercial public tearoom. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Purple Sea


Size: 1000 pieces
Producer: Golden, Royale
Notes: A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, the term refers to a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean. It is also used sometimes to describe a large saline lake that lacks a natural outlet, such as the Caspian Sea.

Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon in the west as a result of Earth’s rotation. The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon in the west. The ray path of light from the setting Sun is highly distorted near the horizon because of atmospheric refraction, making sunset appear to occur when the Sun’s disk is already about one diameter below the horizon. Sunset is distinct from dusk, which is the moment at which darkness falls, which occurs when the Sun is approximately eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between sunset and dusk is called twilight. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Dairy Farm, Wisconsin


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Images
Artist: Dennis Hallinan
Notes: Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.

Most dairy farms sell the male calves born by their cows, usually for veal production, or breeding depending on quality of the bull calf, rather than raising non-milk-producing stock. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including corn, alfalfa, and hay. This is fed directly to the cows, or is stored as silage for use during the winter season. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Paddle Boat Landing by Susan Brabeau


Size: 500 pieces, 2 missing
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 60.96cm
Producer: Collectible Puzzle (?), The Art of Susan Brabeau series
Artist: Susan Brabeau – The imagery of Susan Brabeau appeals to the viewer on several levels: bringing forth moods and sentiments of a by gone era, creating an illusion of life so completely that the viewer can almost hear the sounds within an image.

As with all good story-telling art, the imagery of Susan Brabeau is meant to be felt as well as seen. [The Art of Susan Brabeau]
Notes: A paddle steamer is a steamship or boat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.

The paddle wheel is a large wheel, built on a steel framework, upon the outer edge of which are fitted numerous paddle blades (called floats or buckets). The bottom quarter or so of the wheel travels underwater. Rotation of the paddle wheel produces thrust, forward or backward as required. More advanced paddle wheel designs have featured feathering  methods that keep each paddle blade oriented closer to vertical while it is in the water; this increases efficiency. The upper part of a paddle wheel is normally enclosed in a paddlebox to minimise splashing. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Emerald Dreams by Hiroo Isono


Size: 500 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 51 cm x 41 cm
Producer: Ceaco, # 1124-2
Artist: Hiroo Isono – Born in 1945. Graduated from Aichi Kyoiku Univ. and started his career as a free-lance illustrater from 1970.
Isono’s work with mainly its theme in nature such as jungle and tropical nature are filled with serene atmosphere appealing nature’s wonder strongly.
Isono has travelled various places such as Yaeyama Archipelago, Solomon Islands, Yakushima, Amazon, North America, Kenya, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and other forest region.
1991 corporate calendar using his work received an award at Japan Ntional Calendar Exhibit. [Character’s Village site]
Notes: Printed on Holo-Glow shimmer paper

Puzzle: Cher Bourges Cathedral


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Churches and Cathedral series
Notes: Bourges Cathedral (Cathedrale Saint-Etienne de Bourges) is a cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, located in Bourges, France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Bourges.

It is based on the Notre-Dame in Paris but with significant differences in design. The cathedral is noted for its unique feats of architecture, impressive sculptures and thirteenth-century stained glass windows.

Bourges Cathedral has a highly unique floor plan. It has no transepts, which form the cross-shape of most churches. This lends the cathedral a unique appearance inside and out. On the exterior, thick walls and a myriad of flying buttresses support the unbroken weight of the long nave (122m).

Bourges Cathedral retains almost all its original ambulatory glass (apart from the axial chapel), dating from about 1215. The iconography used in many of these windows uses typology (such as Old Testament episodes prefiguring events in the life of Christ) and symbolism (such as the pelican  who pecks her breast to feed her young on her own blood and the lioness who licks the malformed cub into shape) to communicate theological messages. Other windows show the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, the story of Dives and Lazarus, and the Apocalypse. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Hogwarts Castle, Harry Potter


Size: 550 pieces
Producer: Mattel (I believe)
Notes: I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or simply Hogwarts is the primary setting for the first six books of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, with each book lasting the equivalent of one school year. It is a fictional boarding school of magic for witches and wizards between the ages of eleven and seventeen.

Rowling has suggested that she may have inadvertently taken the name from the hogwort plant (Croton capitatus), which she had seen at Kew Gardens some time before writing the Harry Potter series.

In the novels, Hogwarts is located somewhere in Scotland. The school has numerous charms and spells on and around it that make it impossible for a Muggle  (i.e., a non-magical person) to locate it. Such people cannot see the school; rather, they see only ruins and several warnings of danger. The castle has extensive grounds with sloping lawns, flowerbeds and vegetable patches, a loch (called The Black Lake), a large dense forest (called the Forbidden Forest), several greenhouses and other outbuildings, and a full-size Quidditch pitch. There is also an owlery, which houses all the owls owned by the school and those owned by students. It should be noted that some rooms in the school tend to “move around”, and so do the stairs in the grand staircase. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Waits River, Vermont


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

The Waits River is a 39.4 km-long river in eastern Vermont in the United States. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows to Long Island Sound. According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known historically as “Wait’s River” and as “Ma-houn-quam-mas-see.”

The Waits River rises in southwestern Caledonia County in the town of Groton and shortly enters Orange County, where it flows generally southeastwardly through the towns of Orange, Topsham, Corinth and Bradford, to the village of Bradford where it joins the Connecticut River.

In the town of Bradford, it collects a short stream known as the South Branch Waits River, which flows eastwardly from Corinth. [Wiki]

 

Puzzle: Moritzburg Castle, Saxony, Germany


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: The original castle was built from 1542–1546 as a hunting lodge for Moritz of Wettin, then Duke of Saxony. Elector John George II of Saxony  had it extended and between 1661 and 1671 the chapel was added after designs by his architect Wolf Caspar von Klengels, a fine example of the early Baroque style. After in 1697 John George’s grandson Elector Frederick Augustus I had converted to Catholicism in order to secure his election as King of Poland, the chapel was consecrated in the Catholic rite. Between 1723 and 1733, Augustus had the castle largely remodelled as a pleasure seat by the architects Matthaus Daniel Poppelmann and Zacharias Longuelune, including a formal park, several ponds and a game preserve. The last resident from the House of Wettin was Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, dispossessed in 1945 by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. [Wiki]