Bumble Rumble

Puzzle	Bumble Rumble
Artist	Dee Rogers
Type	Teaser
Catalog Picture

Ok, should we start with confessionals first or with the review.... how about a word from our sponsors?


Yeah, the British show "Life on Mars" rules. And that was a joke opening based on the show "Camberwick Green". I'm praying that when ABC brings their conversion of the show to the US it isn't rubbish.

Anyhow, back to our review.

I'm gonna confess, I really liked this puzzle except for one thing the bees. I thought Dee had captured the spirit of Georgia O'Keeffe without copying, but the intense blues, indigos, and violets making up the flowers left me wanting more flowers and less bees.

How many M&M's is a sufficient bribe to Stave (and Dee) to get them to release a version of this with (for lack of a better term) a stained-glass window set of flower pieces for the center?

Ok, bygones.

This puzzle is harder than IMHO, and three would have been fairer. It took me about 30 mins to do the frame and another 90 to do the teaser pieces. (My flickr site has pictures of the puzzle completed.) Specifically, this was harder than Luxembourg Gardens also by Dee which Stave rates at 3 swords.

My confession, I just was not "seeing" the bees, maybe I was just pining too hard for more flower (I actually put this puzzle aside uncompleted--crazy talk given my OCD with bringing order and set completion) to finish about four Dee Rogers Staves I was puzzlenut-buddy swapping before finishing this.

Anyhow, I couldn't "grok" the bees face-up, so I worked from the back to be less distracted. (This is only the 2nd time I've worked a puzzle from the back, Puff Enough being a partial from the back to get ~8 puffins in, this one for all ~24 bees.) The big thing for me of working from the back was that it helped me focus on the shape, plus since this puzzle is heavily color line cut, I got a "boost" of the wood grain to help sense continuity.

All in all an excellent puzzle, would be a top choice for me if it could come sans-bees and plus-more flower. At the current difficulty, I think it is a bit under-scored and folks may find it a bit frustrating compared to other 2 sword puzzles. If you are looking for something really gorgeous in terms of art and cute theming, I think this is a very nice ~80 piece Stave piece with art by Dee that will likely give other puzzles a solid 5+ hours of puzzling especially if unlike me you refuse to "cheat" and work from the wood side.