ADNASJUR, n., a large wave, or waves, coming after a succession of lesser ones
BAA, n., an elevation of the sea-bottom so near the surface that the sea breaks on it with bad weather.
BAKFLAN, n., a sudden gust of wind which, by mischance, strikes a boat’s sail on the back side and so endangers the boat.
DOMRA, n., obscuration of the sky by haze.
RAAB, v., to fall, as a mass of rocks from the face of a cliff.
UTSHOT, n., the outward course of a tidal current from the land toward the sea.
Robert Macfarlane delights in dialect and explores the landscape of language in Slightly Foxed Issue 49, accompanied by Claire Dalby’s woodcut of Heylor, Shetland. Click here to read the article.
About the contributor
Claire Dalby was born in St Andrews, and Scotland is the subject of much of her work. She has been roaming Shetland since 1978, and many of her wood engravings from the area focus on buildings within their context of the landscape. As a botanical illustrator, she produces portraits of plants as well as more scientific studies, and in her watercolours she explores landscapes and still lives, and their textures, forms and colours. She says ‘it can be maddening to sit outside with paper and watercolours in a strong, cold wind. […] But perversely it is often the weather and lighting that makes me want to paint a particular subject. Even fog has its own special quality of softly revealing shapes and colours without shadow or recession of headlands.’