The first snow in Colorado Springs usually lands in October, while the elms around Patty Jewett are still holding half their leaves, and it comes down heavy and wet and is gone again by Thursday. Buckeye Gardener goes out in it anyway, plowing drives and shoveling walks on those old grid blocks where the sidewalks run continuous and one uncleared stretch breaks the whole line. Steps, stoops and the strip between walk and curb get done by hand, because on a narrow lot that is the only way to do it right. Ice treatment goes down where a north-facing porch keeps a winter microclimate of its very own. There is something plain and good about a swept walk on a street where everyone else's is swept too.