Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh

I know you've missed my bon mots. If you had, I wouldn't have had so many of you imploring me to start again. So after spending what seemed like an interminable two and a half months in England getting our new visas, we are back. So what better time than now to start writing again. And what better time than whilst we are on holiday again (lets get the "but Simon, you are always on holiday" comments out of the way here" Done? Good!)

So where this time? Why, we have come south of the Mason-Dixon line for a week. We arrived yesterday and I have to say, its true, the South is mighty hospitable. We stayed last night in Raleigh, North Carolina (or it might have been Durham, I wasn't really sure which). This morning we drove to Greensboro. And what a lovely little town it is too. It has two of the finest claims to fame for a town that I have ever come across. The first is....

and the second and possible more far reaching and profound is it is where four quite frankly brave gentlemen demanded service at the Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960. They have turned the building into a quite superb museum which should you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods is well worth a couple of hours of your time.

Tonight we are staying in Winston-Salem and also worth a diversion if you are ever in NC is where we went for dinner tonight. Some quite excellent ribs (and I am no great fan of ribs) and pulled pork, hushpuppies and cheerwine. Added to this that lunch today was good and dinner was last night too (yet to try grits though even though they were on the menu at breakfast this morning). Could we have finally found the part of America where all the good food is??