Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: The purchase of this photo was one of those rare examples of good things coming to those who wait. I spied it, but just could not pay the premium price on it. Lucky for me it didn’t sell and the seller marked it down – and I scooped it up. It is a British press photo, although it also has a brief German tag on the back.  These read as follows:

FARMYARD PETS – FL/JN 17 10 32
Charming farm girls at a Hampshire farm, with their tiny pets, enjoying the morning sunshine. PHOTOPRESS
Copyright by PHOTOPRESS Phone: Central 5335 Johnson’s Court, Fleet St., London E.O.4

6×2 = KATZEN
Englische Farmgirls mit ihren Lieblingen.

Reprinted in a German paper perhaps? It was sold to me by someone in Britain however. These girls seem to be wearing uniforms for the equivalent of a Girl Scout or Girl Guides I guess they are there. I am sure someone could explain the jaunty beanie on the one – an indication of higher rank perhaps. I did a few not-so-memorable years in the Scouts myself, but I will save that for another time. Even then I preferred the earlier uniforms I saw in our outdated guide books. Not sure how I would have felt about these bloomer types however.

This 8 x 10 photo is crystal clear and it is hard to say who is cuter, the kittens or the young girls. The photographer had a great eye. The fence and the pattern it creates is a great composition somehow, although it literally cuts the image in half. Both girls and cats seem to be in fine form, although as cats will be, some of these kits are a bit more put out than others by their temporary imprisonment. Typically, I am drawn to the cute little all black fellow who looks right into the camera and wants action. The four striped ones (same litter those?) are all poised for an escape, or in the case of the one dead center, at least a whack at that black kitten. Only the white kitty seems relaxed and enjoying the moment.

Farm cats are a splendid, high spirited breed all their own and I have been fortunate to know several. Among my cats of days gone by Snoopy, Winkie, Otto and Roscoe were all farm born. Otto came from a corn farm in New Jersey and especially loved to roll around in a bit of corn silk in the kitchen in the summer – the smell clearly bringing back images of her early days. It might be my imagination, but I have always thought that barn cats were a bit smarter than other cats. But that could just be a form of cat prejudice rearing its head. Don’t tell my Brooklyn born Cookie and Blackie!