We are walking a footpath along a mountainside gently sloping down from our left to our right. It is December. The leaves are down from the trees, brown and slowly crumbling atop the rocky forest floor. There are still a few shades of green in spots: some ground-hugging evergreen ferns in the left foreground, patches of moss and lichens on the rocks, some laurel shrubs between the trees not far downhill. The sun has just set behind a distant ridge. Through the leafless tree branches the horizon is aflame in gold and deep orange, with passing clouds tinted a light grayish purple.