I soon found out that scything is not a one-lesson skill.

In return for a single annual scything, I am rewarded with a field of flowers from May until frost.

I'll leave the scything to you then, Deb.

"Simon's down in the orchard doing some scything.

Matthias was at his side, the scything, whirling blade cutting a deadly pattern of cold steel amid the rats.

There is a story about a dragon man from the village of Pečenjevce, eastern Serbia, who saw an ala in a cloud while he was scything.

They were caught in the exploding trees, cut down in a hail of wooden splinters, torn to shreds in the indisciminate scything.

In the meantime, Diarmuid, springing from his crouch, butted Tegid again before the mountainous one could ready a return scything of the table top.

That business with the scything of the flames, and that magnificent horse, and a body made of bones without flesh that nevertheless had voice and strength.

The elemental moods of the sea still strove in her; its sudden fury and halcyon calm, the laughter of dolphins, the sinister scything of sharks.

For a moment, she ambled through a chaos of outcomes: moments of outrage and stark evil; instances of slaughter and betrayal, the cruel scything of death.

They wore white uniforms, peaked skull helmets which housed scything laser beams, carried bat-shaped weapons which combined the functions of devastating ray guns and hand-to-hand clubs.

It was in his power to have this deck swept by enemy shot, their impact gouging out swathes of great splinters andsending them scything through the air, slicing off limbs and stabbing men.

A turn or two around the square-which needed a good scything, he noticed critically, making a mental note to upbraid the lad responsible- and he would go back to the inn again, watch duty or not.

"Yanur, thy tales would gladden those who await the scything of the executioner," said Thirlain Ludoch, the oldest of the trio, whose brown beard was faded to a hempen hue by desert suns.

Essentially, the Kultur-kampf is between the phallo-centric cylinder mower (that thrusting motion combined with the crushing rollers) and the innovative hover - however mimetic of traditional scything - with its more spatially flexible style.

Anyone with a scooby between them would realise that this drastic and ideological scything of public services is an agenda that is attracting alarm from any economist with any track record and will set us on the same downward spiral as Ireland.

The causey and the stairs were guarded by the silent, colossal automatons of Maal Dweb, whose arms ended in long crescent blades of tempered steel which were raised in implacable scything against any who came thither without their master's permission.

"In the first days of the plague's terrible scything, a great maddened mob of men burned Maynooth in County Kildare - the whole place, even St. Patrick's College where Fitzgerald Castle once stood and it a shrine to the old ways.

It seemed a long way, though, from the summer perfume of myrtle and orange-blossom, the brilliance of white fluted marble, the wreathing steam, the orderly practices of the sugar-yards, the worksongs of the scything and the vintage, the glory of the sun setting, of the sun rising out of the sea.

Nothing less than a scythe would be able to cut them down.

My father's old scythe is past it so I wanted a new one.

The new Death stepped through the wall, scythe held in both hands.

All he needed was a scythe and hour glass, I thought, watching him go.

Four more times the scythe came at him, and each time he stood firm.

A man advanced to the door with a kind of scythe in his hand.

Levin took the scythe and began to get the feel of it.

The young man took up his scythe and leaned on it.

There was nobody on the other side to keep it from going through those men like a scythe, at least for long enough.

What if that blade should be cut off by a scythe?

She slapped his hand away with the scythe of her arm.

He wondered whether Death would appear with a long scythe.

So I finally bought a scythe, a very sharp one.

The scythe slashed down again, and the head came clear.

Of course, she says I should take my scythe with me."

A dark figure stood behind them, holding a glowing scythe in its hands.

And I had even been prepared to encounter them with my scythe.

Against the others' words his arm swung like a scythe; he came to her.

The women on either side of her raised their scythes and glared down.

Behind him the fins cut the water like the black scythes of death.

No wonder we went down like barley under the scythe.

Walker released his hold on the scythe and fell away.

Clouds rushed at them in a blue and red scythe.

The scythe is shown as having a large eye in between the blade and the staff.

They had their their scythes to cut them with, you see?

The three men behind him also went down as if scythed.

He went down as if his legs had been scythed.

And the full force of its belief scythed into him.

She scythed a bit at a time for the cattle.

She felt as if Death had come into the room and scythed apart reality.

From the west, slowly, darkness scythed out across the land.

Civil War veterans kept meeting until time scythed down the last of them.

To the other side, men of the Order fell as something scythed through their ranks.

"All the higher life forms scythed away, just like that."

You cannot get to them without scything what stands in between."

He would scythe her down if she didn't fit in with his plans.

As he yanked it free the saw shot up and scythed into the cable.

The front line was scythed down, but the second returned fire, then charged up the slope.

But to hear them used, to feel them scything in her direction.

I shook her, scythed one hand out in a fiat plane.

A leg scythed his feet out from under him.

Above me were swifts scything their blue and white fields.

The wearer stood where he was, and his own weapon scythed.

The sword scythed among them and they backed away from his rage.

The damp wind scything through her clothes felt like it cut to the bone.

There were some nettles I was about to scythe down when you arrived and stopped me.

The heavily armed company would scythe into the distant defenders.

He soared up below the man and scythed upward with his knife.

Her left arm was scything up to shield him.

They'll scythe us if we stick our heads up.