Refreshing Alcove Moss

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Arabic al-qubba, the-vault. As a color modifier, alcove implies a recessed-bedroom-or-sitting-area quality, the visual register of English-and-French-Country-House-alcove hand-built recessed-and-vaulted bedroom-or-sitting-area-recess-and-window-seat architectural surfaces under English-and-French-Country-House alcove-recess light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to niche and atrium in usage.

Bryophyta — the nonvascular plants that colonized land 470 million years ago, before vascular plants and far before flowers. The color refers to a thick mat of Hypnum or sphagnum on a temperate forest floor: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the velvet texture of millimeter-scale leaves. Dustier than fern, deeper than lichen, with the slow patience of a plant that lives by absorbing rain through its surface.