Beetlemania

Older readers may recall Beatlemania, but as a young Tenselet, I was blithely unaware of the significance of the Fab Four. Neither for their effect on the musical landscape nor the reaction they engendered in young ladies.

Sure, I knew the words to Yellow Submarine (and my brother's alternative transport version 'Purple Aeroplane'), but by the time I was ready to unleash my pocket money onto the High Street's vinyl emporiums (and that probably has more connotations than I'm comfortable with), the Beatles had gone their separate ways.

The enduring legacy of their back catalogue is still as potent as ever, I guess, because there was much rejoicing around the world when, last month, more than 200 Beatles songs were made available to various streaming services.

However, by this time, a slightly different mania was occurring at Tense Towers, as one of the festive gifts was a 1000 piece jigsaw featuring beetles in all shapes and sizes.

Whilst not featuring acres of blue sky, vast swathes of white clouds, abundant lush vegetation or heavily-patterned seascapes, it did provide us and our visitors with more of a challenge than we were anticipating. 

The top and bottom were certainly a test of our patience and resolve: two rows of purple and one of white/purple, that could be either end.

One inspired guest hit upon the idea of sorting out all the beetle bums (Blur fans take a bow), or heads... no, it's a bottom... or is it?

But, eventually, after a few late nights, we arrived at the completed puzzle in a mood of euphoric 'inordinate fondness'.

Apparently, there's a circular version of the jigsaw too, but from a habitat point of view, I think it's important to maintain as many (h)edges as possible.