The South Carolina Low Country

Hunting Island, a barrier island east of Beaufort on the S.C. coast.

In The Kitchen Episode 2 - Ugali na Tomato Gravy

Ugali is one of many names for cornmeal porridge, a coarsely ground mixture of corn (also called  maize) and either water or milk. It is a favorite food in many African countries as well as in the Caribean and many North American food cultures. 

Charleston Rice Forum

Artist Jonathan Green launches an important forum on local culture

"Jonathan Green wants to start a conversation. It's a conversation about rice and a conversation about history. And more than anything, it's about a vibrant West African-based culture that flourished for over two centuries in the Lowcountry of South Carolina but is seldom discussed today.
The need for that discussion was the impetus for the Lowcountry Rice Forum, a three-day event that kicks off Thursday evening and brings together scholars, artists, educators, and cooks. The larger goal, as Green articulates it, is to get people together "to have a conversation about the landscape of the South and how it came to be."

I See the Sea Shore

Francis Marion National Forest

After slowly journeying eastwards from the Catawba Nation's lands for several days the airship and its crew followed the Greater Pee Dee River southeast until they were almost to the coast. Pine and Fir trees gave way to Hickory and Oak while forest thinned out to become wetlands and estuaries.

Carya illinoinensis commonly known as Pecan Tree

Smells changed entirely as the airship journeyed from the Carolina Piedmont to the coastal region. And the humidity, a constant throughout South Carolina, became soul-crushing. Some of the coastal scent was the salt tang from the Atlantic and some was from the spring flowers. By now the calender showed March and March at the coast was as warm as May further inland. Shrubs, both native and naturalized, bloomed unceasingly.

Hibiscus grandiflorus commonly known as Swamp Rose Mallow

Angel Oak

This is what an oak tree should look like! NOT all chopped, maimed, and mutilated (as they so often are here in Sweden).

"On Johns Island stands the majestic Angel Oak. Estimated to be between 300-400 years old; the tree towers 65 feet high and has a circumference of 25.5 feet. Its area of shade is 17,000 square feet and its largest limb has a circumference of 11.5 feet, and a length of 89 feet. Live oaks are not particularly tall trees, but have wide-spreading canopies. Only in the very old specimens do you find massive limbs resting on the ground, as you do the limbs of the Angel Oak. The City of Charleston acquired the Angel Oak Park in 1991." - From the City of Charleston's website.