Though you may not have heard of it, yet, jigsaw puzzle speedrunning is on the rise, and we have a professional in our midst! Twenty-two-year-old Emma Williamson of Marion is one such professional, having competed last September in the annual World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Spain and is competing this weekend in the USA Jigsaw Nationals in Atlanta.

            It is fairly self-evident, if you couldn’t tell by the name, but competitive speed puzzling sees jigsaw puzzlers race to complete a jigsaw puzzle in as short a time as possible.

            We spoke to Emma’s father, Roger, who said proudly, “Whenever I tell people about it, which you can imagine is all the time…” before commenting on her time in Spain. He said, “On the second round, she won it. Which is huge! She didn’t even realize she had won, so she had this incredible reaction that rippled through the speedrunning community.” He added, “She’s quickly become nationally and internationally renowned.”

            Emma grew up in Marion, attending both Sippican and Old Rochester Regional schools. Emma told us, “I got into jigsaw puzzling through my grandmother. She is an avid puzzler and always has a puzzle going. Puzzling has always been a way for me to relax and quiet my brain.”

            On how she went from ordinary jigsaw puzzling to completing them competitively, she said, “I first learned of competitive speed puzzling through an Instagram reel that my dad’s partner Erin shared with me. I was about to start my winter break of my junior year of college, so I was about to have a lot of free time and figured I could capitalize on it by seeing if I was any good at speed puzzling. I found that I really liked it and figured it would be a good way to make friends outside of college. I went to the Massachusetts State Championship and the Northeast Regional Championship and did really well and made a lot of puzzle friends! They found me a team for last year’s Nationals, which led to me competing in the World Championship in September and returning to Nationals this year.”

            Both she and her father commented on the warm welcome she received from her first moments entering a competition. On the importance of the friends she has made and community she was welcomed into, she exclaims, “The community is absolutely amazing. The first time I went to a competition by myself, I got ‘adopted’ – puzzlers worked to find me a pair for the pairs competition and gave me lots of snacks. Since then, I’ve gotten to meet puzzlers from around the world, and everyone is so nice and so excited for speed puzzling to grow! I’m mostly excited to go to Nationals to see my puzzling friends, since they are spread across the country and I haven’t seen many of them since Worlds.”

            On to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, the 2026 competition will again be held in Spain, specifically Valladolid in Castile and León, beginning on September 16. For worlds, Emma said, “Worlds was absolutely insane. I went in just expecting to have a good time and hoping to place top-ten in the team competition (which we did). I didn’t have a lot of expectations for my individual performance because I knew that there were a lot of really strong puzzlers attending who had much faster times than me.” Though she just recently began competitive puzzling, she stated, “however, I can now say I’m the 20th best puzzler in the world! The real highlight of my individual performance though was winning my semifinal! I’m the only American to ever win a semifinal at Worlds, and I beat the eventual World Champion. It really put me on the map – I gained 300 Instagram followers overnight and was invited on the Piece Talks podcast.”

            Following her time in Spain last year, she added, “what really stuck out to me in that moment was the overwhelming support, both from the puzzling community and my friends and family back home. When I left the dome (Worlds is held in an overheated dome), I was greeted by hugs from my teammates and fellow competitors. I had so many people back home say that they got their friends invested in watching, so the people watching varied from (veterinary technicians) at the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to recent Tufts graduates to my mom’s third grade class at Center School.”

            So, what’s next for Emma? As stated, she has Nationals this weekend and will likely return to Spain in September. She said another goal for her is to bring competitive puzzling back home, specifically fostering its growth in the area, with her saying, “I’m really excited by the growth of speed puzzling, and one of my goals is to bring speed puzzling to the South Coast! I would love to host a competition in the Tri-Town someday, and if folks are interested in speed puzzling (or even just puzzle swaps!), they should definitely reach out to me.”

            You can see Emma’s continuing rise and speed puzzling on her Instagram @emmaswilliamson.

            The USA Jigsaw Nationals, run by the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association, will be held this weekend in Atlanta. It is a race against the clock, as are all great speedrunning events! The national competition features individual, pair, and team competitions over the three days. The individual and pair bouts see competitors race to complete a 500-piece puzzle as fast as possible. For individuals, there are four preliminary rounds of 200 competitors, each concluding in a final round of the best 50 times from each round. Pairs see two preliminary rounds of 200 pairs each, ending with a final round of the best 100 times from each round. The team’s competition is a bit different, with 100 teams in two rounds completing a 500-piece puzzle and immediately moving to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle, with the timer ending when both are complete. The final round sees the top 50 teams from each previous round completing two separate 1,000-piece puzzles.

            You can watch Emma and the Nationals live either on YouTube @usajigsaw or on Twitch by visiting twitch.tv/usajigsaw. We will be watching! Go Emma!

By Sam Bishop

            Seed catalogs are like smelling salts for the gardener who has been stifled by the long bleak spell. Seed catalogs don’t just sell plants; they wake up the imagination. Suddenly you’re picturing rows of tomatoes, the smell of basil in the sun, bees drifting through flowers – everything that felt frozen starts moving again.

            There is an implicit promise in a seed catalog. The promise might be of perfect fruit or of an impossible color blossom, or of rapid growth. Some come with generous coupons. This is one time I honestly don’t mind a good sales pitch. Especially with all of the color pictures!

            I’ve learned over the years to use some restraint and sit on things for awhile before placing my orders. Things look different at second glance, like rainbow-colored gladiolas. When planning your garden summer attire, you will want to make numerous revisions before the final selection. It’s OK to daydream, but you need to think your dreams through.

            The first order of business then is to pare down the sources and compare. I do have my favorites, so it’s likely I’ll stick with them, but there are some new companies worthy of a look. I was recently trading information with my dad who dubbed a few of my catalogs as “yuppie” owing to the priciness. He shared some of his with me as well – many of the old established ones and a couple I’d never heard of before.

            Just a smattering of seed purveyors from our collection include: Harris Seeds (established in 1879); Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Co., (since 1866); Jung Seeds & Plants (family owned and operated for 119 years); John Scheepers (since 1908) and Johnny’s Selected Seeds (over 50 years). Seems like a lot of human heritage in the seed business. Each one is uniquely alluring in its own way.

            I enjoy John Scheepers’ sketches and descriptions like this flower: “Hyssop provides a long season of nectar-sipping by butterflies, hummingbirds and bees as it wafts its anise-mint scent through the garden. It’s also a good cutting flower.” Cultural information, zone requirements and all you need to know (it’s deer and disease resistant and drought tolerant) is included with each item.

            Another catalog laced with details and descriptors is Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com). The Maine-based company is named for Johnny Appleseed (after John Chapman – the American pioneer nurseryman) and is run by founder Rob Johnston. Their motto “helping friends and families to feed one another” and their methods are admirable. All varieties of flowers and vegetables are trialed in Maine for performance on an almost annual basis and many are organically bred and produced there under the guidance of a large, expert staff.

            Glancing at the names of their cucumbers spread over five pages it’s fun to take in names that include: Quirk Mojito, Socrates, Demeter and Sashimi among numerous others. Pictures of them as well as detailed descriptions and sowing information is provided and throughout the 206-page catalog, the sheer variety is astounding – especially when you consider choices at the grocery store.

            How about a basil bonsai? I found that offered by the Territorial Seed Company (family owned since 1979/online at territorialseed.com). “This mounded, fine-leaf Greek basil is perfect for growing inside on a sunny windowsill or counter.” It is truly tempting! Their catalog has thorough cultural information with exact instructions for every seed they sell and useful tips.

            Another gorgeous catalog is the non-profit Decorah, Iowa-based Seed Savers Exchange (Seedsavers.org), which “stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations. We educate and connect people through collecting, regenerating and sharing heirloom seeds, plants and stories.” The gorgeous array of vegetables, flowers and seeds seen online, prompted me to order a catalog.

            I recently learned that our very own library offers free seeds. The Mattapoisett Free Public Library Seed Library first opened in May 2018 composed entirely of donated seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange. It quickly became a beloved facet of the collection. Interest only increased during COVID when patrons requested hundreds of packets of seeds. Today, the Seed Library continues to help patrons kick-start their garden each spring. In addition to seeds, the library loans planting tools including a soil testing kit, two kinds of cultivators and a seed starter kit.

            In a former card catalog you can browse the seed library and find those that you will plant. In turn you can harvest the next generation of seeds to share with the library. Seed sharing is voluntary. I went to investigate after heard about the program from my friend Cecile. In addition to their offerings, I also discovered more catalogs available for patrons to pore over. Looking through them made me even more warm and fuzzy about our local library. I took home four sacred packets of seeds: eggplant, carrot (there’s always a first time!) artichoke and wildflowers.

            It’s really no wonder that we all relish this initial step of reacquaintance and renewal. Each year – as with Paris runway collections – offerings are different and you never know what will flip your switch!  I love to look at the pages and read the promises and be the first to see the new introductions next to tried-and-true cultivars.  Although I order online, I like the process of scanning the pages of catalogs which are nearer to the real things than a computer-image.

            A bit of advice for making selections: you may want to write a shopping list of what you’re looking for before you fall under the spell of so many beguiling plants; that possibly you don’t need or have time to propagate.

            “For gardeners, this is the season of lists and callow hopefulness; hundreds of thousands of bewitched readers are poring over their catalogues, making lists for their seed and plant orders, and dreaming their dreams.” — Katherine S. White, from “Onward and Upward in the Garden.

The Seaside Gardener

By Laura McLean