November of 2000 I came down with a nasty case of the flu, one of the worst I've ever had.  I was under the weather for almost three weeks.  The fall that year was sunny and fairly mild.  It made for brilliant colors and kept the leaves in good condition since we did not have our usual heavy rains.   Not being in the mood for field work, I was wandering in my front yard one day and saw these leaves.  The red ones are Euonymus; the golden brown ones are silver maple.  The next two days I photographed them in soft afternoon light filtered through high clouds.  I ended up with the pleasant combination of brilliant red with softer pinks and yellows you see here.  Working quickly is often the rule with light outdoors; each day there was only about a half hour of the best conditions.