Boiling to separate...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selections 2018
Various - Milano Jukeboxes 1998-2017
Ligeti - Works
Various - The Story Of Blue Beat: The Birth Of Ska
Niklas Paschburg - Oceanic
Grandaddy - Last Place
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Behind The Counter With Max Richter
Falco - L.I.V.E Donauinsel
Alice Coltrane - Lord Of Lords
Magazine - Where The Power Is
The Bad Plus - Never Stop II
Boney M - Daddy Cool
The Physics House Band - Mercury Fountain
Taylor Swift - 1989

Breakfast out today for a change - including very close to the camera pancakes...

Then, a drive to Hereford, through the potential target but, ultimately, disappointing and unstopped at Leominster (pronounced Lemster for some reason)...

An amble around Hereford...

...took us, eventually, to the impressive cathedral...

... featuring Richard Pembridge...

...and a replica of his Helm (the original, rather ironically, appears to be in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh)...

These rather large and extremely hot heaters were interesting...

...as was the Denton tomb, to Alexander Denton and wife Anne, née Wilson, C. 1566....

Anne died in childbirth aged 18, her baby is also featured... 

However, Alexander is not here - he remarried one Mary Martyn but subsequently died in 1576...

He is buried in Hillesden, Bucks apparently...

Nice tomb though, as tombs go...

Other items were also enjoyed...

...as were the environs in general...

Dead bishops...

Alters and angels...

More dead guys...

Here lies Herbert Westfaling (on his side), deacon from 1586-1602....

This tomb, like many others, was moved from its original location during extensive remodelling in the 1840s...

But, the piece de resistance is the tomb of Saint Thomas Cantilupe - bishop and one time chancellor of Oxford University - with its "relics", brought back from Rome, where he died after going to visit the pope to try and sort out a spat between him and the then archbishop of Canterbury...

His second in command boiled his body to separate flesh and bone, buried the flesh at Orvietto where he'd died, his heart is in Ashridge in Bucks and the bones were back here...

Maybe his finger's in here...

You can read the whole, very interesting indeed, story here - including references to preferential treatment due to the involvement of the Knights Templar - oooh, conspiracy theories!

Meanwhile, here's the story in tapestry form...

The tomb has been refashioned to show what it might have looked like back in the 1300s, when his cult brought many pilgrims (and, erm, money) to the Cathedral...

It's said that many miracles happened around the tomb - so much so that, fewer than 50 years after his death, he was canonised...

Featured on the tomb is the Mappa Mundi, the original, from around 1300, is displayed elsewhere in the cathedral, after, at one point, having been used as a carpet! 

It's the largest medieval map still known to exist...

So there you go...

Out...

...then...

...back in...

...and past, noting this statue of Elgar, who lived her for over 10 years...

Down to the river...

...over the bridge, built to commemorate the 60th year of Queen Victoria's reign...

A statue to Dan the Bulldog, subject of the 11th of Elgar's Enigma Variations...

Although the piece was entitled "GRS" for George Robertson Sinclair, Dan's owner, the organist at the cathedral, Elgar explained...

"The variation, however, has nothing to do with organs or cathedrals, or, except remotely, with G.R.S. The first few bars were suggested by his great bulldog, Dan (a well-known character) falling down the steep bank into the River Wye (bar 1); his paddling upstream to find a landing place (bars 2 and 3); and his rejoicing bark on landing (second half of bar 5). G.R.S. said, 'Set that to music'. I did; here it is"...

A nice wee place was found for lunch, "De Koffie Pot"...

Soup v Granola...

A walk back to the car...

Then, we drove over the border to Presteigne, the so-called Gateway to Wales...

The village appeared to be shut...

But we did manage to find one wee place open for coffee, No 46...

One last look around...

...before heading back to Ludlow...

Out for dinner to an unpictured Blue Boar and home in time for "University Challenge" - over 100 points but beaten by both London teams...

Late on, fell asleep trying to watch Clint Eastwood's "Bird" - the tragic story of jazz pioneer, Chalrie Parker...

I should probably just have read Charlie Parker's Wikipedia page to be honest, or, indeed, for the film itself...

Today's artwork, "Soup v Granola"...

Highlight of the Day : Hereford cathedral...