The Nifty Details II

This time it is the Wanderer's grandson Hathawulf who must speak privately with one other character. An entire descriptive paragraph precedes their conversation:

"...a ride through the pastures. It was a windy day, abloom and aripple across miles of tawny grass. Clouds scudded dazzling white through the deeps above; their shadows raced over the world. Cattle grazed ruddy, in far-scattered herds. Game birds burst from underfoot, and high overhead a hawk was at hover. The coolness of the wind was veined with a smell of sun-baked earth and of growth." (Time Patrol, p. 438)

Poul Anderson seems to have missed nothing in this description. I think that Hathawulf and Randwar hear the wind rippling the grass and the game birds bursting from cover. Thus, they:

see tawny grass, white clouds, racing shadows, red cows, fleeing birds and a hovering hawk;
hear wind and wings;
also feel the cool wind;
smell hot earth and growing plants.

How often do we think of the sky as deep rather than as high? But this description fits.

We have come a long way from Carl's description of autumn 1935 in New York, let alone discussions of the structure of the Time Patrol, yet this is all one seamless narrative in Poul Anderson's vivid prose.