Bruise-coloured clouds
A striking colour name, and particularly as I am now looking out onto ...
'... bruise-coloured and quicksilver clouds...'
...
Sonnet-begetting beauty
One of Leigh Fermor's teenage crushes, a girl who ran the local grocery shop, whom he spotted on an escapade...
Peak-wandering robbers
Another menace in the Mani region, though having heard so much of its lurking threats, Leigh Fermor and his wife...
Like sticks of barley sugar
It's years since I saw a stick of barley sugar, and this perhaps dates Donald Hall's otherwise quite timeless writing....
An aching loss
The occasional ache of something long lost - Leigh Fermor's likening it to an old wound; more less healed, but...
Rum-sodden slumbers
How many slumbers are rum or other spirit-sodden, giving the sleeper refuge from the morning's hangover? Apologies to all sober...
Helot-haunted lowlands
Helots were the serfs of ancient Sparta, from the town of Laconia and only a notch above slaves.
They were...
Far-tinkling haze
I am trying to imagine, visually and aurally, a far-tinkling haze. As a way to distance yourself from any kind...
Skeleton fists and black commas
This perfectly captures the gnarliness of old vines and I like the black commas contrasting against the snow-white backdrop.
'Pruned...
Mouldywarp
A curious and endearing term of Middle English origin, but now archaic or dialect only, although deserving revival. It means...
Red-legged falcons
Assuming this to be the red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus), I found this photo. Leigh Fermor spots them around the remains...
The astonishing sound of Magyar
Having just returned from Budapest, I was happy to rediscover this galloping description of the way it can sound to...
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