The road to the Changu Narayan temple winds through the outskirts of Kathmandu, past villages, wheat fields and up through leafy woods.
It would be easy to dismiss The Princess of Montpensier (2010, Studiocanal, 15) as little more than a handsomely appointed costume drama, with its period setting, romping horses, masked balls, dashing duels and lush scenic detours through leafy woods and remote castles.
In one entry he described the Chinese as "industrious, filthy, obtuse people" and criticized them because they "don't sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods," according to CNN.
Sleeping wild is technically illegal (though with politeness, a smile and leaving no trace behind, it's unlikely anyone will mind you kipping unobtrusively in a leafy wood or on grassy hilltop), but you can bed down on a farm like Meadowsweet just outside Braunston (01572 720675, ukcampsite.co.uk) rather than in a boring, formal campsite.
In a "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (from Lisbon), a rock formation becomes the Madonna's throne, which protective angels and saints gather round, and as our eye is naturally drawn into the tranquil, encircling landscape beyond, a little way off we catch sight of the holy couple's donkey, turned loose to graze the green grass on the edge of a leafy wood.
And when one thinks of hikes through leafy, hilly woods, places like Vermont or the Berkshires come to mind, which are both quite a car ride (read: term of captivity) for a Westchester child not exactly waiting with baited breath to see his first bit of orange flutter to the forest floor.
It's a cliché, of course, but even the most hard-nosed cynic can't help but be seduced by the leafy squares, dark-wood restaurants and post-Renaissance palaces.
Like its relatives, this is not a showy bird, preferring to hide away in the leafy canopy of our woods and forests.
We have trekked from the soft green sward of the Shires, through leafy glades and dark woods where lurk: flesh-eating trolls; riddling Gollum; the skin-changing man-bear, Beorn; and mischief-making elves.
Exposure to PAHs in the general population occurs primarily through charred, smoked, and broiled foods; leafy vegetables (Phillips 1999); wood- and coal-burning stoves (Lewis et al. 1999); air pollution (Lioy and Greenberg 1990); and tobacco smoke (Besaratinia et al. 2002).
Still, this was largely a lugubrious, tone-deaf pageant of the walking dead, played out against leafy green wallpaper and tatty wood-grain veneer.
