I was away in the USA for a month without a computer, hence the lack of blogging. To be more precise, I was in the Appalachian Mountains which should really be its own state for its cultural seclusion from the rest of the country. I can't really make up for it now but these photos do seem to sum up the trip.

The Blue Ridge Mountains, a chain of the Appalchians which give off a dew that makes them appear blue, are a soft and grand sight around every corner. In the northern part of the mountains, around northern Virginia, the ridge is slim and sharp, the valleys falling on either side inhabited by people who seemed to echo the grand mountains in whose shadows they live. Further south, getting into southern Virginia and North Carolina, the mountains are higher, broader and inhabited by people who seem more open and warm. In eastern Kentucky, where I had the amazing fried chicken, anything goes. Desperately poor and continually shafted by the policy-makers in Washington DC who want the coal to keep coming out of the ground whatever the environmental and social cost, this is a place where everyone has some sort of musical talent, where kids barely in their teens are performing old-time banjo tunes on stages and recording albums.

I discovered that I am not a lost cause when it comes to making music- I learnt five banjo tunes and am about to go to my first old-time jam in the hope of joining in. I also ate a lot, learnt a lot about old-time music and the people who make it, and made countless new friends. The USA really is a great, over-weight, friendly, proud, rich and wonderful place. But I am glad to be home.