So, having described the garden and the veranda, the next piece of the jigsaw is the drive.

The drive had two large wooden slatted gates at the top, sloping down to the bottom where there was a garage and some storage areas on the left, a gate and two windows in the wall separating the drive from the garden straight ahead, and the wall between the drive and the fields on the right. More slender cats and kittens could squeeze through or under the gates, but the chunkier cats would have to jump over, which was quite a leap given that the drive was quite steeply sloped.

At the bottom of the drive, outside the garage doors was an ideal place for some fruit boxes and crates which the cats enjoyed sitting and playing in. It was a prime after-dinner spot for cats in the winter as the afternoon sun would be shining there, allowing them to absorb some warmth before the chill of the night set in.

Pictured here is Twilight with two of her daughters, Storm and Dawn. Twilight’s tail obviously has its own thing going on.

Close to the garage was a small storage area which became a useful place for the cats’ food and water as it was under shelter. The Visiting Cats ate here quite a lot as they didn’t necessarily want to go into the garden and were just dropping in for a snack on their tour of the neighbourhood (ably demonstrated by Caramel in the photo below). Behind the chicken-wire partition was a small, square area with a couple more boxes which became a favourite of cats who were either ill or had small kittens, as it was private and had no passing footfall.

The windowsills were usually home to plant pots containing cuttings, which meant of course that they were frequently knocked over and had to be rescued and quickly popped back into their pots. So, it seemed sensible to leave part of one of the windowsills free of plants and this was obviously instantly requisitioned by The Cat, becoming one of her favourite afternoon siesta spots, especially when she had kittens either in the field or the garden, and she was only one-hop-over-a-wall away from either one.

Here, The Cat is pictured taking her siesta with Number One Son, Ana (in the days before The Tail Incident).

To go from the drive to the garden the cats could either come through the gate when the humans were there (it was closed at all other times), or jump up to the field wall (on the right in the above photo), then up to the high wall above the windows, and down the olive tree into the garden.

The wall on the right continued up the drive to the gate, and was a favourite hopping-over place for cats who were coming from the fields. Gaps were left between the decorative stones and plant pots, and the well-head in the field was a favourite launchpad for cats coming to the drive (although some of the cats chose not to use the gaps, as you can see from the photo of The Cat below). The Cat could easily hear her kittens from the drive if they were in trouble in the field, and was expert at hopping neatly over the wall to sort out grievances and retrieve over-adventurous offspring from tricky situations.

The header photo also shows the wall between the drive and fields, just after NVQ and Mr Bright had a frank and open discussion on the wall which culminated in Mr Bright jumping down, before fur flew.

To the left of the windows was the gate, which was open only at feeding times when the humans were there (useful for keeping small kittens securely contained in the garden and away from the drive and, potentially, the road). If you were lucky enough to have a polite Visiting Cat like Boomerang, a (short) queue might form, but there was usually an undisciplined free-for-all and tumbleweed of fur and felines in both directions as soon as the gate was opened.

Compared to the front path and veranda, the garden and drive were wilder areas and not necessarily kept as neat and tidy; that would not have been realistic from the cats’ points of view (or from the humans’, who had more than enough cleaning and tidying to do as it was).