Down along Lake Springfield the yards run to the water, and the grass there grows differently — softer, greener, holding damp under the sycamores long after higher ground has dried. Mowing that shoreline takes patience with the slope and the shade, so the cut height is set to the season and the turns kept wide of the beds. Trimming works around the dock posts and the seawall corners, and a plain line is held where lawn meets gravel drive. In autumn the leaves come down over the water side in sheets, and clearing them is its own long afternoon. On a July evening with the lake going flat and orange, a lawn cut that morning is about as good as the view gets.