Although the day was still new, the equatorial sun was up, the placid countryside already glowed with heat.

Antonello da Messina sets the grim scene of the Crucifixion in contrast to the placid countryside which rolls into the far distance, becoming paler and bluer as it recedes.

The stage began in Bagneres de Bigorre in the foothills of the Pyrenees and wended east through placid countryside, with long vistas of sunflower fields and pastures spotted with horses and cattle.

The explosion, three-quarters of a century after the war, cost him an arm and most of a leg, but if anything it only heightened his interest in the great conflict that still scars the placid countryside.

No trouble, no discontent, just a placid, contented countryside.

Onward the caravan rolled, through a placid and gentle countryside just north of the river.

Half-subconsciously he compared it with the green and placid countryside he had seen from the balcony where he and Diktor had breakfasted.

Through placid countryside and well-kept towns the race went.

An owl few over the ford, banked into a beechwood and gave a last hollow call, which was lost in the dawn's loud chorus that seemed to presage a bright hot summer's day in this rich and placid countryside.

The contrast between their grim purpose and the placid, lush countryside they rode through could not have been greater.