In Windham the morning comes up the Natchaug valley slowly, fog lifting off the water while the first mowers wake. I.C. Lawn & Tree works the yards around Windham Center and out along the back roads, where a lawn has to hold its own against oak shade and river-bottom damp. Mowing, edging, string-trimming the fence lines, and clearing the whole yard down clean in spring and again when the leaves let go — it is patient work, and it shows. There is real satisfaction in a stripe laid straight across a wide front yard, and in the sharp line where grass stops and the walk begins. This is a corner of Connecticut that rewards care rather than hurry, and the lawns here say so by August.