Standards have to be realigned when animals are the subject, Kitty, as here:

MJ,

Not siamese twins, but joined at the heart, and their owner has a third younger scamp who rags them a little, but is also very close: the three of them sleep in a lump at night: it's very hard to tell where one ends and the next begins.

(Her two from the previous generation were even closer: she had the boy first and he was an absolute hoodlum: her flat had a room with a plate-rail and a large ornate fireplace: he'd shoot up this onto the plate-rail, and then launch himself at the heads of unsuspecting visitors, often biting as well as scratching. The girl arrived several months later, and he changed overnight: he was absolutely devoted to her and she to him. When he died, she pined: when his replacement arrived, she ignored or excluded him; she didn't last long though, she just wasted away. She was replaced by a new girl, and the story began all over again, until the bonus scamp arrived: the dynamic's rather more complicated now.)

I think I mentioned this picture earlier in this thread. I found it today on a slide film taken in July 1988. One of the many advantages of digital photos is that it's so much easier to find pictures - my slides are in projector magazines and so difficult to preview.

This shop is now called the "Floral Scenter" and is in Harborne - I might have a picture of it as it is now but it would probably be easier to go and take a new one. Can't remember when the watchmaker's closed. It's another acute-angled shop like the electrical shop I posted earlier.



(click as usual)

Can't find one but I did find this:

Dangerous living under shark-infested skies!

I can confidently predict that that joke will make it to the finals of the worst joke of the year competition, Andy.

That shop and its neighbours demonstrate everything I love about British vernacular architecture; the scale, the proportions and the angles are wonderful: a great pic.

That looks like a very nice, if understated example of the style I know as Pont Street Dutch (will give a reference if I have time to unpack the relevant bit of my library)

Here's another pub from Brum, not angled, but a fine example of the rather heavy Victorian ornamented style which is such a feature of the city's architecture:

Final shot of Harborne from 1988 (for now at least!) This is Princes Corner at the S end of the High St. It used to be referred to as the Duke of York, after the pub on the left, but that's gone now, also the little shop to the right of it which had lots of different names including, at one time, CLINTS (which no doubt caused much hilarity). There's a new block of apartments there now. The pub in the centre is the Kings Arms - at least I think it's back to that name now, it's changed often too, including a spell as a Firkin - and I believe it's up for sale now.



(cotitsalv)