By the Mendocino County line you are surrounded by tan, wide-open cowboy country, which gives way to the gentle green vineyards of Anderson Valley, then to dark corridors of redwoods, with shafts of sunshine piercing the gloom like smoky spotlights.

FORBES: Days of Wine and Redwoods

His nickname, by the way, is 'Cowboy', he wears a proper Stetson and he talks like all British people imagine Americans do, in a kind of honeyed drawl that's utterly charming.

BBC: Trick of the light: A California road trip

Washington had warmed up, the swift storm of the previous day had passed, the sky was overcast but the air wasn't painful in a wind-chill way, and the capital was full of men in cowboy hats and women in long furs.

WSJ: Way Too Much God