We bought shrubs and lavender bushes and a half-price Christmas tree. The tree will serve as an exclamation mark at the bottom end of the long border at the front of the house. I've been planting them out this morning. Memo to self: the back seat of the car needs to be swept for pine needles.
The cats are no friendlier to one another than they were, but they're going to have to make the effort. I have discovered- or rediscovered- over the past couple of days that if you're holding a cat that feels threatened by another cat it will suddenly turn into a writhing mass of knives.