My Mini

 

A lady asked on my blog the other day was that my Mini hiding around the corner, truth is no, I sold mine back in 2011 as I needed the garage space for an extension to our house that was going to happen. The thing is I have had Minis on and off since I was 19 so I thought I would show my favorite ones

  The first one I owned after my Lambretta was sold, (came off it and ended up under the wheels of a truck) The car got resprayed blue with a black roof and I leaned how to fix the car after blowing up the engine and wrecking a rear radius arm

I went through another three Mini's  before  I bought my 1275GT which like the previous one I did a few 12 car rallies in. This one was different I fitted a 1275 Cooper S engine in  it which I modified. The car had been rebuilt by me in Dads garage, the engine I built in the shed. It's take outside my first house.

 Not mine but a friends Racing Mini Se7en, I learned a lot helping prepare the car and at racing circuits. It won a lot of races.

After selling my GT and having a couple of Fords then a couple of kids I decided to get a couple of minis because it was as cheap to insure the two as it was the ford I had. This was the one I bought which my wife drove. We got our kid in it along with two push chairs so why mum's want to drive around in a dam great gas guzzling 4x4 now a days is beyond me

 

Ten years later my wife bought a new Mini Cooper and I decided to restore my old mini after finding the one I bought to restore had some holes in it, Mine did as well so the other was scrapped and this is how the mini looked after I fitted the new parts to it, the metal on the floor is what I took out.

This is how it looked when I finished it

You would not have missed it or not heard it as I had modified the engine as well as everything else on the car, it was nigh on a racing car and was really fun to drive.

 Take care

Sr Edburg Bicester Pt2

 

 

This week the Church Explorer is back at St Edburg  Bicester to show you around the inside of the beautiful old church

Newbury Lock

 

Different place this week, Newbury. The lock to be precise taken from the bridge on Bridge street where I went to while my wife went out trying to find Christmas Presents. Always on the lookout for a skywatch this one was hard not to miss

Wide view from the bridge

Zooming in on the lock which is on the right, the part to the left is the river Kennet, back in the 1970's I did a raft race that came through Newbury, we had to go around the lock and down the steps you see in the center, not easy with a flimsy raft between four of you, we finished nearly last

 

Last view of the lock zoomed in.

Happy SkyWatch

 

A Place to Eat

 

 

More Rain

 

Well over here in the UK we have been hit by a couple of storms in as as many days not only was there wind there was rain as well, O yes some hail mixed in with it as well

 

Looks like we has some show nut no that is a layer of hailstones 

 

My rain gauge beside the moon-gazing hare, the accumulation of a few days rain, most from below the hoop was last night

 

I went out for a while in my car and stopped to get this photo of the weather, the water there is flooded fields , it's like that in a lot of places around here

 

A a few miles up the road another flooded field

 

On the way back I stopped off to get a photo of a Rainbow

 

This is looking the other way at a filed in a previous photo

 

An this is one of the roads in out village, the water would be right up to where I am stood last night. I might add there are could more places in the village where the road is flooded as bad, one outside the local pub where people have to take their kids to school while cars try and negotiate the flood because of a collapsed pipe in the pub car park no one will sort out

 

The rain gauge again, while I was out the level went up another 6mm while I was away

Take care

St Edburg Bicester

 

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Edburg Bicester which was one of the last churches I visited  in 2025. The church will be show over two weeks with the inside next week

December sunset

 

I'm still getting through last months SkyWatch photos and these were taken on the 15th Dec when I noticed an orange tinge to the clouds

 

Looking out the front over the roof

 

turning around to a more southerly direction 

Then over the Oak tree

To the east the clouds on fire

Happy SkyWatch

Into Mischief

 

  Settling in and getting up to mischief

Holy Trinity Finstock

 

This week the Church Explorer Visits The Holy Trinity Finstock a nice church that I found locked but the churchyard made the visit worth while

Last part of the day

 

 

As usual I missed the sunset

Not that it had been much of a day with the clouds

Looking west it was still grey

 

But the setting sun brightened some of it up

Happy SkyWatch

Hissing Sid

 

Twas a cold and frosty night

 

Well frosty, it was -6.9c in the morning when I got up, warm by the standards of a friend in Canada. After a few days of sub zero temperatures here I thought I should get out my camera and macro lens and get a few frosty plants.

Look out the window of the kitchen in the morning and you will see a blackbird sat there fluffed up just waiting for me to go out feed them sultanas 

Frosty rose leaf on the patio fence

 

Rose hip looking cold

 

 Frosty one

Spiders webs make great subjects

Covered in frost you wonder what happened to the maker

They were everywhere

Frosty rose branch

Hip covered in frost

This plant took on a whole new color

Did the flowers survive

The magnolia bud looked like it was going to open

The pond was frozen over

Rosemary/]

Take care