A Peaceful Scene

"The car emerged from the woods onto the shore of a small lake. It was a peaceful scene, the quiet waters like molten gold in the slanting sunlight, trees ringing them and the mountains all around. Under one huge pine stood a cottage and a woman on the the porch."
-Poul Anderson, Twilight World (London, 1984), Prologue, 1, p. 14.

I quote this passage to demonstrate that Anderson was able to write descriptive passages like that as early as Twilight World and also that it was not yet a multi-sensory description.

several factors counteract the peacefulness of the scene:

soldiers guard the cottage from marauders;
a daisy is huge, red and irregularly shaped;
a squirrel has noticeably altered facial features.

One hopeful factor is that the woman is pregnant.