Wheat in the fields and specials at the Uffington White Horse Show

I was up on the Ridgeway on my bike with Nelson at 8.30am this morning. We cycled out close to the Wayland's Smithy. The first warm, fine morning for sometime. I realised when I was up there that it has been at least a month or more since I was last there. My last ride was when the wheat was just turning gold which I reckon must have been early July. I recall thinking that the next time I cycled there the harvest would be in when I got back from my holidays.



Today the wheat was still in the fields. Much of it looking worse for the wet weather with some of the ears turning black. I don't recall seeing it in the fields this late before, but my memory is short. Here is a photo to remind me for forthcoming years. It is GPS tagged too - so I'll know exactly where I took it (from the water trough at the top of the hill from Idstone looking out towards Swindon!).

Later in the day I went with Doug over to the White Horse Show at Uffington where he was judging the stinky engine display again. Not many engines there this year, the bad weather I guess must have put many people off. The ground was very soft under foot.

On the car show side, there were however a good few decent and unusual vehicles to see. Over the past couple of years I've become increasingly interested in British specials. These pre date the American trend for building Hot Rods and tend to be lightweight body shells built on tuned chassis from medium sized performance saloons, or really lightweight stuff like tuned Austin Seven's with tiny alloy bodies.




Here's just the sort of thing I mean. An Austin Seven special. It looked like the original article, some 70 years old I'd guess. SUPERB. I could just imagine whizzing along in that with a flying helmet and goggles!



Is this a special? Not sure. I didn't know Vauxhall made such a car. Either way its very very cool. The rear end had a dickey seat with its own screen. Note the nautical style air intakes on either side of the bonnet near the screen.



For me this car just made my day. A 1935 Riley special. Built on a Riley 1.5 Twin Cam chassis shortened and narrowed and fitted with an all alloy body. Worth around £15K I guess. Currently fitted with a Rover 2litre Twin Cam while the 1.5 is rebuilt with all the performance bits possible. I spoke with the owner who intends to spend time with it on the track in the coming years. Lovely.