Pile of straw blocks raised a shade (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
brick red
'a shade' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'pile of straw blocks raised' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'pile' could be 'rick' (rick is a kind of pile) and 'rick' is present in the answer.
'raised' could be 'bred' (eg bred children) and 'bred' is found in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for brick red that I've seen is " Bright reddish-brown colour".)