Brooke here:
A friend who is an excellent seamstress* is making us some new cushions for a window seat, and she took the (six-decades-old and nasty as a cat’s box) existing cushions with her. The bare surface of the window seat is now exposed, and we are for the first time looking at the lovely handmade art deco storybook tiles centered in it with our subconscious minds as well as with our regular old eyeballs. Which is why I heard Brown say:
“Honey? Look at these tiles.”
“Mm-hm. Pretty.”
“No. Look at these tiles.”
I went over and looked at the tiles, then realized for the first time they were… um, well, if I were to write an article on these tiles for an art blog, I would make quite a fuss over the composition of the central images and how the title characters seem to be added as afterthoughts. There were some rumors about Randall Jarrell, but we had passed these off as the same petty hearsay which dogs the heels of every famous person. Now, though, regardless of why he had them built into the house as a permanent fixture, these tiles just added an extra layer of awesome.
*Yes, they still exist – find one and include him/her into your Circle of Knowledgeable Friends as quickly as possible.
Flying by night 
Those are some suggestively placed… errr, well the first one’s identifiably a sceptre, but what is the second one even supposed to be? (Besides a rod.)
Is that a scepter or are you just happy to see me?
My, my. Aren’t they just some…. fancy… lads. this obviously needs to become the centerpiece of the decor for that room.
It’s funny you should say “nasty as a cat’s box”….upon getting them home, Cicero (the cat) immediately made one cushion the base for his evil operations and hasn’t left yet!