Narrowed eyes twinkled at Cadfael in the light of the dispersed torches and the far-distant stars in a perfect midsummer sky.

Sunlight was just fading from the tops of the trees around the clearing, and the intense blue of midsummer sky was staining slowly into night.

One night, around 9:30, the midsummer sky still bright with light, I walked through downtown Belfast from a restaurant to my hotel, a journey of about 15 minutes.

Most youngsters are delighted to be chosen as landing pads by the graceful residents, which range from small monarchs to majestic blue morphos with wings the hue of a midsummer sky.

The anger and the loneliness of two hundred years flowed out of him, unleashed by his longing for a mortal woman with hair like a flame and eyes as blue as a midsummer sky.

Now, following his immediate whim, he stood tall, and I saw him in remote dark gold against the deepening midsummer sky.

VICE presidential candidates, like the Perseid meteor shower, briefly light up midsummer skies.

Ah, but she was a beauty, her skin pale as marble, even in summer, her eyes like turkis, yet not cold and blue but warm and enchanting as the midsummer sky.

Down, ever down we moved on a wide-slanting and easy circle, such as the high hawk swings when he is but a speck in the midsummer sky.

It spun golden at the top of its arc, in the sunlight, and it glittered and glinted and hung there in the midsummer sky as if it was never going to come down.