A Brit in the US

This is probably the third time in 7 winters that I have known snow fall in South Carolina. It's the second decent snowfall I've seen though. The first was barely enough to be called a heavy frost. This, however, was enough that I could go out and take some really nice photos. Because things are so far apart in this part of the US and because the roads were quite slippery, I didn't venture too far. I went as far as the old mill and wandered around there for a while - until I began to get cold which was pretty much when I called it a day. The old mill in the snow The old sluicegatehouse in the snow The sluice mechanism For some unknown reason my camera had a hard time focussing here. I'm not happy with the result. This is, of course, my old Canon XT. It's usually pretty good with focus. This time I just don't know what it has done. The house where I rent a room This is the house that I rent a room in. The landlady is quite nice a...

This was a quick wander I did around Charleston, on my way to and from a business meeting. As it was a business meeting, I didn't really have enough spare carrying space for my digital SLR so I took my trusty superzoom compact. It wasn't a long wander because I had to head back to Lexington for another meeting later in the day. I spared a couple of hours though. Old-style prison transport In the good old days, prisoners were piled into these iron caged wagons together with a slop bucket and taken en masse from the courthouse to the jail or vice versa. Needless to say, the wagons were horse-drawn. When you look at modern prison transport, very little has changed. The bad guys still need to be shackled and they still need to be held in iron cages. The old prison This is, I believe, Charleston's old prison. This is pretty much where I found the old prison wagon. There is another in much better condition parked outside Lexington prison. One day I should go and ph...

I had a phonecall, from the delightful Dorothy. "Would you like to get some animal action today?" Well, what red-blooded man can resist a come-on like that? I jumped into my SUV and roared off down the road to Dorothy's house. Strangely she was both dressed and ready when I got there. She climbed into my SUV and off we zoomed. She normally drives a Camero at high speed. I prefer the more leisurely pace of my driving as opposed to white-knuckle rides. Unsurprisingly, I've never ever had a speeding ticket and am highly unlikely to get one. I never dared ask Dorothy how many she has had though as a nurse, she has a viable excuse. So, we ended up at Columbia Riverbanks Zoo. It's a rather pleasant place full of interesting plants and animals. Some parts of it are rather Disney-esque but without the atrocious prices, the ridiculous crowds and the feeling that you're trapped in a falsehood.  Entering the zoo, we turned right and arrived at the monkey enclosu...