Another magicial day

The temperature inversion was not quite as dramatic as yesterday. But tomorrow is looking wet so best appreciate the day.

The autumnal colours are particularly good this year with the fallowing of the oaks and beeches. Even the ubiquitous larch is looking splendid.

I came across this old use of the word ‘fallow’ the other day and I resolved to use it. In this context it means “reddish yellow, yellowish-brown, tawny, dusk-colored” and derives from the Old English word fealu¹‘Etymonline’. 2017. Etymonline.com <https://www.etymonline.com/word/fallow#etymonline_v_1101> [accessed 14 November 2022]. The name fallow-deer comes from the same root.

Fallow, as in ploughed, land, not yet sown with crops, is also Old English but comes from a different word ‘fealh‘, although, according to the OED, “probably because of the color of plowed earth”²Ibid..

Today’s photo of the distant Cleveland Hills, is taken from Coate Moor above Kildale.

• 1
  ‘Etymonline’. 2017. Etymonline.com <https://www.etymonline.com/word/fallow#etymonline_v_1101> [accessed 14 November 2022]
• 2
  Ibid.