Can you just picture that……

So, here are just a few photos of the journey so far…..

I never tired of this view and still don't - partly because it is the one view that impresses upon me where I really am !

I've always hoped to visit this monument. Like most who were alive on that fateful November day in 1963, I remember exactly where I was when I heard - sitting watching Emergency Ward 10 with my grandad !

This is certainly one of the highlights thus far - the Giant Pandas in the Washington Zoo. I've always wanted to see one, and now I have !

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This building got my vote for the top D.C. visitor attraction - the Library of Congress. Apparently very few of the natives ever go there, silly, it is quite 'awesome'.

One of the things you notice quite quickly here is the grandeur and cleanliness of the 'rest-rooms', public loo to you and I. They are something else and I have become fascinated to photograph them. Once again, the Library of Congress stands out !

This tickled me, I thought dog walking services were just something that happened in films, like 'In Her Shoes', but no, it actually is a seriously important service, and it costs ! The other amusing 'service' I saw, but could not really snap, was a barrow, like a two wheel market barrow, on which were four rows of bench seats in which sat nursery kids being wheeled along by one nanny !!

The other icon of the D.C. skyline, the Washington Monumento.

The other iconic building is of course the Pentagon, seen here from Arlington Cemetery. I found it strange that right outside the Pentagon is a huge bus stop and metro station with entrances into the building, no pictures are allowed there and there are a lot of men with short hair, dark glasses and machine guns......

The amphitheatre at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Arlington National Cemetery is a sombre impressive place where all the dignitaries gather at times of National remembrance.

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The Frontier Heritage Museum of Virginia has houses from the U.K., Ireland, Germany and from the State itself, all depicting stages of the evolution of domestic farmstead architecture.

The 18th Century Irish farmhouse and buildings was my favourite exhibit at the Frontier Heritage museum. The display of old tools and equipment might have influenced me a little.

The interior of the Irish farmhouse had period (rare and real !) furniture and fittings such as this rush light - y'all know I love rush lights

I was enthralled by the zig zag fencing in the museum which is a traditional free standing cleft timber (oak maybe) structure that can be easily moved. I am going to have a go at making some when I get home.

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This is the famous Lawn area of Virginia University with small student flats around the sides. It is a very desirable University and only the cream get to live in this area.

Thomas Jefferson's mansion at Monticello outside Charlottesville, Virginia. For such an immense man the house was not at all over done. I especially liked the clever 'gimmicks' like his door mechanisms, clock systems and bed alcoves.

These old wooden cabin type houses and barns are still to be seen, dotted around the landscape or in the wooded areas, they date back into the 1800s.

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This is the house where we built the fire pit, it is early 20th century and wooden. I love the old swing o the porch and the setting, this is near Carrboro in North Carolina.

The fire pit we built was near the cabin in the distance, this is taken from the house.

The fire pit is a common accessory for garden / woodland living out here. This one is dug in clay and is therefore likely to have its own water supply for dousing !

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Statues and monuments abound in the Universities, this one, depicting slaves holding a great burden, is in Chapel Hill on the University of North Carolina campus (UNC)

The Atlanta skyline is dramatic indeed, the traffic is dramatic indeed indeed.

Fort Benning, Georgia, it is a huge base for the U.S. Army

The Colour Troop stand-to at the Ranger graduation ceremony

The tower where rope training takes place at the Ranger Training School, Fort Benning, Georgia

The display consisted of mock patrols and other daring do's

The extraction demonstration was impressive, four Rangers dangling under a Black Hawk ain't the sort of thing you get to see every day, even at Fort Benning !

Just a taster of the things I’ve seen and done so far on this amazing trip through the South.  Two weeks gone and two more to go, much of the next week will be spent earning my keep out in the woods at a cabin owned by a family member where Whitney and I have to build a dry stone double arched bridge over a ‘creek’.  As the last few days have seen nothing but rain the water level will be up and it will be an interesting little dual between us and the power of the stream.  We went out to buy the stone on Saturday, about 10 tons of it (stone is expensive over here, that little lot cost over $2000, which increases the pressure to do a good job) which will gradually be turned into a little piece of W & W stone art (Whitney and Welshwaller) here in the hills of Table Rock Mountain, South Carolina.  It may be a while before you hear from me again – mountain cabins are bereft of modern technologies (thank goodness !) but have no fear, I will re-appear before too long – unless a Grizzly gets me that is !!

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