The antique cats of Girvan

I came across a nice selection of ceramic cats in Girvan, which was nice in one way, but not quite so nice in another.

I have to be honest and admit I can only afford to buy collectibles in my local charity shops, and even then only at the one at the bottom of the pile. One down below has its price tag (my finds are always in single digits, and usually closer to 1).

It took me a while to find out where I’d seen these as the shop doesn’t have a sign (or at least didn’t when I was there), but it is Artimisia on Hamilton Street, and I think there are some nice pieces to be found there.

But it was closed when I was there, so no close looking, and I was really only interested in one subject, of which I noticed it had a disproportionate number of examples, which was fine by me. I think there were more, but as my view was restricted to whatever I could spot from the street, can’t be sure.

The first could almost be captioned as if the ginger was saying “Look at this idiot”.

Sophisticated Siamese (if you please).

I didn’t think I was going to catch this last view, the sun was causing a lot of reflections on the window. I still haven’t figured out why some can be eliminated to a surprising level, while I can sometimes barely remove others, and sometimes have to give up and dump the pic, but this was one of the more successful edits, almost completely cleaned up.

I was so diverted by the reflections I never even saw the cat in the foreground until I got home and reviewed the shots!

Spider-Man with sandwich board guarding Boom!

I was glad to see this collectible shop in Ayr’s Fullarton Street survived the pandemic lockdown.

Looking back, although I never went in (just window shopped, lest I spend too much if I ever ventured in), I recall it looked quite busy. But, after the enforced absence, when I got back, it looked as if the place was derelict, and always seemed to be closed when I got near. Brings back memories of struggling for restraint whenever I got near the dealer stands at Science Fiction conventions.

Happily, that just seem to have been down to the time I was nearby, and the shop’s opening hours. Sadly, it seems these seldom coincide for me.

I got lucky when I had to head for home early recently, and spotted the place open as the bus left the station – the bus got stuck in traffic from the adjacent roundabout, and I (finally) got a pic.