Tuesday 29 January 2013

three rabbits

Here's the latest picture. Style-wise, it's a nod back to pictures like the fox and the badger, and the cover for Dart, where the border is formed of foliage


Anyway. I've not really painted rabbits much before. Hares, yes, but not rabbits. So there we are. Maybe I should do three rabbits like the three hares...

Now then. The Traveller has been misbehaving lately, with water in the petrol. I think the water may have been in there for a while, but I got some contaminated fuel the other week and now the water level has reached the suction pipe and ...Something Had To Be Done.

So I took the filling hose off the top of the petrol tank, and syphoned out the liquid. I got a full demijohn of water, then another inch or two of water, then a load of flaky rubbery stuff that had been floating on top of the water but below the petrol, and then finally petrol. So that's one less thing to worry about! -When I drove to Crickhowell a fortnight back, the engine kept conking out at low revs, and I set off across the Severn Bridge in a snowstorm thinking "This is daft! Please keep going." Anyway, that particular problem is sorted....


9 comments:

  1. More jaunts anon, then. Love the rabbits.

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  2. I am now traveling back in time more than half a lifetime but have murky memory of under some bonnet seeing a glass chamber near a carburettor showing the fuel in the way to the carburettor. Is that my old moggy I am seeing or something else? Often found water in it anyway...

    A friend who flew light aircraft told me that they kept the tanks as full as possible because condensation caused water to collect otherwise.

    Muck in the fuel once ruined a whole holiday in the south of France since we spent it driving a slow black underpowered tiny Ford instead of an almost new fast VW which destroyed a series of fuel pumps as the garage tried to repair it. I remember well the heart stopping feeling as it would cough to a halt in the mountains or on a junction only to start again after a few minutes rest...

    Nice picture BTW

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  3. there was a glass-bowled fuel filter on our David Brown tractor, Coline; very handy for seeing what the engine was drinking! I may see if I can find something like that to stick on the car... thank you!

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  4. I think the rabbits are very well drawn. So are the green bits!

    Lucy

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  5. I also like your finished rabbit image framed like this. Would three rabbits work? Aesthetically yes, but I am not sure they have the same significance as the mystical hare. How about trying it out with a fox. (I love that howling one).

    Thanks for the tips on engines. Having a series of bangers meant never letting mine go below 1/4 full in case of dredging up unknowns; but I had no idea about the condensation.

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  6. All old engines have blurred together in my memory so the glass bowl may have been on our old Lagonda...

    I feel so guilty having a more modern van and only topping up the fuel and window wash and perhaps a spring clean before a holiday trip. A squeak or rattle makes me nervous rather than being part of the car's symphony.

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  7. I love the hares they're reminiscent of Kit Williams Masquerade.

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  8. oh, sorry! missed these comments. I think you're right, Bella; I should stick to hares for the joined ears. Foxed might look a bit daft with extra long ears.
    Unless they were desert foxes of course....
    Looking on the bright side, Coline, at least you aren't glumly contemplating a necessary scramble under the car on the dawn of a freezing day....
    Thank you, Hetty!

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