When the ice finally goes out on the Rock River the whole town seems to exhale, and by the time Nelson Park greens up South Beloit is ready for the mowers. Magnuson Landscaping runs with that thaw — mowing, trimming, edging, landscaping and cleanups through the warm months, plowing and ice control once the river runs cold and steaming again. Spring comes late this far north in Illinois and leaves early, which makes every good week count for something. There is a plain pleasure in the first cut of the year, the lines showing up again like they had only been waiting. And a plain relief, come January, in a drive that is already open.