Dinner required a small relocation.

"Is this still a table?" Alex asked. He was holding two plates and looking at a thousand-piece picture of a harbour. I pointed to a small clear rectangle near the salt. He looked at his plate. We both understood the problem.

I had bought the puzzle because I wanted something to do with my hands in the evenings. For the first three nights it was excellent. I made a border, found most of a red boat and occasionally called Alex over to admire a particularly convincing piece of roof.

Then I reached the sky. The sky was very large and seemed to have been designed by someone with a personal objection to variation. I could sit for half an hour without adding anything. I still enjoyed looking, mostly. I did not enjoy being asked whether I was nearly finished.

Alex was not asking me to finish.

I heard his question as a review of my progress. He meant that he wanted us to eat at the table. We had been balancing plates elsewhere for more than a week, and yesterday he had found a blue piece beneath his lunch container.

"I am not trying to get rid of your puzzle," he said. "I would like to be allowed to use the furniture."

This was reasonable, although it arrived at an inconvenient moment for my argument. I said I did not want to break up the part I had made. He said he understood. We stood there for a few seconds having agreed about everything except where dinner would go.

The puzzle was already on a rigid backing board I had cut to fit it. We checked that the pieces and loose trays could move without sliding. Together we lifted the board onto the broad spare shelf in the study. Nothing fell. I felt a little disappointed that the solution had not required more equipment.

It could come out again.

After dinner I brought it back for a while. I found two pieces, one of which I had been confidently insisting belonged elsewhere. When I wanted to stop, I stopped. Alex helped move the board, and I washed the plates.

We agreed to keep the table clear for meals and ask before leaving a large project out overnight. The arrangement applied to his bicycle parts too. This detail improved my enthusiasm for it considerably.

A week later the puzzle remained unfinished. A friend came round and immediately placed a piece I had been looking at for days. I thanked her with the grace available to me and asked whether she wanted tea.

Eventually I might finish it. I might also decide I have enjoyed enough blue for one winter. For now I can sit with it when I want, and we can eat dinner without negotiating with a harbour. That is working well.