This past summer, knowing that our move to Colorado was imminent, Dan and I invited both of our families to spend a week together in Outer Banks, North Carolina. The sleeper hit of that trip was a jigsaw puzzle by grandmother purchased — by the end of the week, it had absorbed nearly everyone in the house.

Winter with no children, no pets, no local family and few local friends can get lonely. In the spirit of that Outer Banks trip, I picked up a puzzle for our dining room table when we were last at Two Hands Paperie. (When the cashier commented to me that the Charley Harper puzzles are very popular, I had to restrain myself from gleefully shouting HE’S FROM CINCINNATIIIII!)

This puzzle is only 300 pieces and Harper’s geometric style makes it fairly simple. Still, it makes me feel closer to home — or closer to the beach, which ain’t bad either.