Vintage 1960s postcards - kitsch kitten and daisies!

 

Remember when I used to scan stuff I’d found in antique shops? Let me remind you.

Anyway I’m up to it again, starting with this kitsch gem ‘Kitten in the Rose Bower’ photo above by Guy Withers! It’s a J. Arthur Dixon postcard and I think it’s from around 1965 (based on the one below I found with a dated stamp).

Fluffy animal and fake tree branches - what’s not to love?!

 

And another colourful and kitsch J. Arthur Dixon postcard I found in the same antique shop (I know, my hobbies are thrilling)! This one had a stamp on the back from 1965 along with the message:

 

"Thank you so much for sending us Contact. It is most interesting as usual. We are getting straight. With difficulty I at last got rid of some of the furniture and the Bristol furniture looks very nice in its place."

 

Other people’s mail woohoo. The flowers are Barberton Daisies, a wild South African species famed for their varied and attractive colours. Very bright, very 60s…

I took my camera to the Eden Project.

The Eden Project, we loved it there!

It is where small impaled wooden cats spin on spikes and frogs and flowers are ripe for macro photography.

Animals at Paignton Zoo.

 

 

 

 

 

One of these animals isn’t real.

I’ll give you a clue - it’s the giraffe.

Oops inside your head.

"The warbler hatched this cuckoo in her nest and still goes on feeding him, long after he has far outgrown her in size."

Another gem from Picture Post, I like to think the warbler's expression is one of dawning realisation. 

Saw some cats yesterday (I voluteer at a cat sanctuary).

Also, last weekend was the best weekend.

The fish tank of my dreams.

I have this fantasy of putting together a fish tank based on evolution. It wouldn't actually have any proper fish in it and would mostly be rocks and stuff, mimicking the moment marine life first squelched onto dry land.

It's unlikely you can keep these all together (which is why this is always going to remain a fantasy) but I would firstly have some mudskippers, which are amazing and just look like a joke animal with little fins that are gradually evolving into legs. They're amphibious, so the fish tank would have both an underwater bit and a sort of 'shore' to keep them all happy.

Who could NOT want some of these? (image wetlandpark.com)

And then in the watery bit, some axolotls. They have these beautiful gills around their heads and are able to actually metamorphose before your very eyes when dipped in "salamander goo" (I only know this from the rathergood.com song, but when are they ever wrong). Although actually doing this reduces their lifespan and it's probably the equivalent of injecting a human with hormones until they grow an extra head or something; like I say, it's just a fantasy!

Fffff, little axolotl face, so cute. (image uglorable.com)

And then to top it off, some minuscule toads. Just because, just look at them. Just, uh. I would name them all after famous toads. That'll just be 'Mr Toad' then. Hmm. And the toads could ride the mud skippers like horses... They do actually have some of these at Trowell garden centre aquatics.

Hai. (image nycanimalrights.com)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. I'm easily pleased. And all my fave jewelry is from the Sea Life Centre. Wouldn't it be great though!

Cat doing his shopping.

Came across this cat at the garden centre, perhaps having a rest from his catnip shopping or something?

If he's after that sofa he'd better hurry, it's the last one.