Trees

Above, you see a picture of a tree.

Now look at this picture. Do you see any trees? Well, yes, there's a picture of a tree, or at least half a picture, and there's a plant, a crassula, just visible to the left; but do you see any actual trees?

No, you probably see an archway which leads from the front part of our hall to the back part.

Here's a view from the opposite direction. You may see a kitten's ball there, but does the archway look like a tree to you?

It looks like a tree to Sirius.

Here's Sirius. He's ignoring his scratching post, and just about to mistake the archway for a tree. I haven't got a picture of him climbing it, because when he does, I'm busy shouting at him rather than taking photos. But he's very good at climbing it - two legs on each side of the arch. The arch has textured paper on it - now rather shredded textured paper.

When we shout at him in such circumstances, he looks round ("What? You don't want me to climb this tree? Oh dear!") and slides down.

This doesn't really improve the shredded-paper situation.

It's really hard, at least with my not-very-terrific camera, to take nice pictures of black cats. They either turn out looking a confusing mix of undifferentiated kitten parts...

... or look rather sleek and evil. As above. Note variety of rugs which we vaguely hope may protect our new sofas a bit longer.

Actually, the terrible twins are sweet and fluffy. Most of the time. Next week, we're going to let them outside. Maybe the advent of real trees in their lives will limit the damage on our wallpaper. Do you think?

(In answer to your question, Meggie, the book group member who cooked the first meal did have a (fairly new) wife but I think he mainly cooked the dinner. Mind you, he's since left the group - no one really knows why. Maybe his wife rebelled... she wasn't in the group.)