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195/365: St Chad's Gospels, Lichfield Cathedral
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I was in Lichfield today, ancient cathedral city and birthplace of Samuel Johnson. I had a couple of hours to myself, which was a nice treat, and I spent a good deal of that in the cathedral. They were showing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners, which as usual were superb -- though the low lighting in the cathedral wasn't ideal for this purpose. I'm also not that keen on the way Lichfield has (or at least had today) someone standing next to the way out asking if I wanted to donate. I'm used to Worcester Cathedral, which isn't as pushy and simply has various ways to donate (or buy stuff in the shop), while Gloucester Cathedral openly asks you for a specific amount on the way in. I must say that I prefer both of those approaches. I've never liked being asked for money on the way out of a place, whether it be a charity shop or a church. As it happened I'd called at a donation station earlier on anyway.

Anyway, that little moan apart, Lichfield Cathedral is a glorious building. It's huge inside and out -- you keep happening upon extra side chapels and staircases and the like. In the Lady Chapel they were exhibiting some of their greatest treasures, of which this may be the most remarkable: the surviving volume of St Chad's Gospels, written in the eighth century. (The second volume was probably lost when the cathedral was looted in 1646, during the Civil War.) This book, though in Latin, contains marginal annotations in Old Welsh -- some of the earliest in that language to survive. The similar pigment in the Lichfield Angel and analysis of the paper suggest that, although the book was with the Welsh monks of St Teilo in the ninth century, it was probably written in Lichfield itself, not in Wales.

It really is an extraordinary sight, even behind glass, and even to a non-religious person like me. I'll reassure you that (probably unlike most visitors!) I read every single word of Lichfield Cathedral's photography policy, and every word on the signs up in this room, and there was nothing stopping me taking this photo. I did not, of course, use flash -- so I think it's come out all right given that the dim lighting meant I had to use a 1/14s shutter speed!

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...for whenever I get the time to write in more detail. But I might as well put it here. "AI should go away" (narrator from the future: AI did not go away) is not only unrealistic, it's also simplistic. For a start, LLMs (eg ChatGPT) are a subset of AI, not the whole thing. For another thing, chatting to an AI bot does not have to be worthless, as long as you understand what you're doing and why. And for another, some of the arguments being deployed against it are wildly broad, eg "stop machines doing human jobs". Without qualification? The printing press in the 15th century put humans (calligraphers) out of a job, and I'm assuming most people don't really want to live in 1450.

There are good arguments for being cautious and even cynical about quite a lot of aspects of AI. There are very serious questions about its effect on society, the economy and even our emotional wellbeing. Say that and I'll agree as I'm of that opinion myself, and again I'll try to expand on this on here at some point. But if you want recruits for the army of "AI is all slop, full stop" then I'm afraid I'm not going to enlist.

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192/365: Cheap & Cheerful, Bewdley
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A mildly unpleasant day's weather today, with a very warm feel but not a great deal of sunshine, so it felt muggy and close. Even some light rain in the evening, although not enough to do the garden much good. Today's photo is of Bewdley's only real discount shop, Cheap & Cheerful. It's as piled high with stuff inside as it is outside, so despite being a fairly small place it does stock a lot of things! Ironically, it's not that cheap -- in some cases it's better value to go into Kidderminster and visit one of its much larger discount stores or even a supermarket. It's certainly convenient, though, as long as you've remembered your physical money as it's still a cash only shop. The bunting above the sign is in Bewdley Rowing Club colours and is left over from the regatta a couple of weeks ago.

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190/365: Austin Maestro van, Kidderminster SVR station
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I was off to see friends in Worcester again today, but at Kidderminster station I noticed that the SVR was having one of its occasional classic vehicle days. Although there were some much older cars than this on display -- I think the oldest was mid-1930s -- this is the one that caught my eye. An Austin Maestro City 500 van, of which there are only something like 15 left on the road. Indeed, there are fewer than 100 Maestros of any kind still running, remarkable when you consider that hundreds of thousands were made during the 1980s. Sadly the Austin Rover company had awful quality control at the time, and most have simply rusted away. The few that remain are mostly show cars like this one -- the reason I haven't obscured the number plate. You can also see a Morris Minor behind, but those are much more common today.

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188/365: River Severn from Worcester Bridge
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I had to be in Worcester today for reasons that aren't interesting and took up quite a bit of the day without being especially enjoyable. Ah well, at least it didn't rain! Today's 365 photo is a classic scene that, like yesterday's pic, I've posted before but not as part of this project. It's the view down the River Severn from the main bridge in Worcester city centre. You can see the Cathedral in the distance and the "Glover's Needle" (a spire that's lost its church) to the left.

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187/365: Railwaymen's graves, Bromsgrove
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I had a fairly busy day today, but it wasn't an especially interesting one. There was one highlight: the woman who served me in Waterstones recognised the line of cutie marks on my T-shirt! Not often you find another MLP fan in the wild in the UK. Otherwise it was mostly drudgery. This photo is of a subject I'm pretty sure I've posted here before, but it wasn't part of 365 then so I'm saying it's ripe for a repeat! It's the twin graves, in the churchyard of St John's, Bromsgrove, of Thomas Scaife and Joseph Rutherford. These men worked on the early railways and died in 1840 when the engine's boiler exploded -- a sadly common occurrence before later improvements in workmanship and safety standards.

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185/365: Bewdley from Sandy Bank
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This is simply a fact. At least, it is when you have a series like the fantastic England-India match-up that's just ended 2-2. India may have won the final match by six runs, but the result was in doubt until the very last ball. Chris Woakes came out to bat one-handed with his arm in a sling¹ and, though he didn't face a ball and arguably shouldn't have come out, I don't think anyone will soon forget it. In truth England should have won this match and probably lost it with two rather cheap wickets yesterday evening, but India should be congratulated for coming through in the end. It's been a great series, and if the Ashes this winter are anything like as exciting we'll be in for a real treat.
¹ For non-cricket fans: Test cricket has strict limitations on substitutes, even in cases like this. If Woakes hadn't appeared, the match would already have been lost.

Today's photo doesn't have anything to do with cricket, I'm sorry to say! It's actually related to yesterday's pic. This one is the view of Bewdley town centre from halfway up Sandy Bank, the road I showed in my last photo. Prominent here is St Anne's Church, the town's second most famous landmark after the river bridge. By this time of day (late afternoon) it was a very nice day, although there'd been a short period of quite squally rain earlier as a front moved through.

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183/365: Summit of the Worcestershire Beacon
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I was in Great Malvern today, and fortunately the weather was good. Not always sunny, but there was at least some sunshine and it was both dry and moderately warm without being too hot. It was a busy Saturday in Malvern, as there was a craft fair in the grounds of the Priory and a low-key free music festival in the adjacent Priory Park (the same place I was at last week for Malvern Pride). But after a bacon butty for brunch, I also took the opportunity to do some hill-walking. For the first time in two or three years I went right to the top of the Worcestershire Beacon, which at 425m is the highest point in the Malvern Hills and in the county as a whole. A pretty steep walk, and my muscles will remind me of it tomorrow I'm sure, but worth it for the views. As you'd expect on an August Saturday it was really busy up there -- it's something of a miracle that this photo of the toposcope plinth on the summit doesn't have about 20 people in it!