Picture(s) of the day....

[CitroJim]

My destination today on our Friday club 50 mile bike ride

The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton...

[mickthemaverick]

Not being that knowledgeable about Mini Coopers, I was a little surprised to see first the Morris name emblazoned across the green of the rocker cover in the pics, followed up by a pic of the handbook with Morris Mini Cooper as the title. (er...never noticed the obvious title to the particulars just went straight to the pictures). The title describes it as a Morris Minor Cooper mk 1 (slip of the keyboard or was that what it was originally called )

I was expecting it to be branded an Austin Mini Cooper.

Bit of a look up job was required, it came in both flavours Was the Morris the rarer of the two

Neil

Two points for me to pick out there Neil, yes they were originally called Morris Minor Mini's but I think it was dropped before any were actually made and hence it was a Morris Mini Cooper!! Also the simple method of telling apart the Austin from the Morris was a quick look at the front grill, the Austin having a vertical post-like centre pieces with very narrow horizontal bars between them, while the Morris had the full horizontal bars as exhibited on this one.

BFTW - the austin grill

[CitroJim]

I really used to lust after a Mini, especially a MK1 Cooper, when I was a lad - when I wasn't lusting after Sally Thomsett - and got one, not a Cooper, as my first car...

I still have a massive soft-spot for them but the costs these days are beyond my means... They do go for astronomical amounts...

And the nearest I ever got to Sally was my Saxo...

[Gibbo2286]

The very first Mini was I believe badged Morris in 1959, not sure about the Cooper models, could be either I think.

[CitroJim]

The very first Mini was I believe badged Morris in 1959

621 AOK wasn't it? An Old English White one...

One reason I love the Mini so much as we were both born in the same year... The Mini a month after me... I'd so love a 1959 Mini...

[mickthemaverick]

I had a 1959 Mini, 659 DON, which would have been my second car. I loved the starter button on the floor and the sliding windows which made it a really characterful car to own. It was the first engine I ever stripped to replace a head gasket and regrind the valves etc as previously it had consumed more oil than petrol going everywhere with a big blue cloud out the back!! Happy days

[CitroJim]

Ahh, the starter button - when BMC were so far ahead of the curve... They all have them now! And those sliding windows were practical and meant the doors could have roomy storage bins... I loved the pull cords to open the doors too

My Mini had both a crank oil seal leak and worn valve guides... It made my first ascent and descent of Porlock Hill interesting - slipping clutch on the way up and a massive cloud of blue smoke on the way down when I opened the throttle after the long descent on trailing throttle. Everything disappeared in a cloud of blue! Never before or since seen anything like it...

Later that week it was engine out of mine to resolve those issues. The learning curve had commenced

[NewcastleFalcon]

Keep it visual folks, POTD has posts today but no Pictures....

Here's one from the Falcon a rather gorgeous David Brown Tractor, part of the Makers name in Close Up thread



Neil

[CitroJim]

Autumn having fun at her very first Guide Camp at 10 months old She spent the week at camp with her Guide Leader mum...

I'm told Autumn enjoyed every minute of it and slept right through the night every night!

This really is quite a magical photo

[myglaren]

Not often that these are seen

Lily wonders what's going on.

She was on the go all day, probably excited by all the visitors, a sort of birthday party for my youngest daughter and her son, the birthdays almost coincide, just a week apart.

[mickthemaverick]

Seeing the telephone has reminded me of another tale I shall put on the new Pranks in the Workplace thread!!

[CitroJim]

Four and a half hours stood marshalling on a Triathlon bike course gives one lots of time to notice things..

My Marshal Point has a low iron fence along it, on the island where two roads diverge/merge... The B526 junction just north of Gayhurst and the road off to Weston Underwood.

The fence has been there a long time and I was intrigued to observe the rust/patina on bits of it...

And not painted very recently either. It was once yellow...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Additional points for an unusual subject there Jim. Had my camera battery not ran out I could have posted number 2 for useless "fences", the concrete post and chain, More designed to be decorative with gleaming white posts and the drooping heavy duty chain sagging between them. Guaranteed within a very short time of them being repaired or painted someone will have dunched into one of the posts and knocked it over.
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Camera battery ran out after only one shutter click "on my walk", but hopefully I have satisfied the needs of POTD Seasonal Wild Flowers Club.

We are into "Golden Rod" Season and the bees certainly know it.

Falcon Original

Neil

[Rp0thejester]

I'm sick and tired of seeing these purple weeds growing in people's back gardens. They tend to them and clip them. Take a trip on a train and you'll see them growing in the wild without any care. However I've seen 2 white ones, are they a rare breed of this weed??

[myglaren]

Looks like Buddleia, a favourite of bees.