By mid-October the traprock ridge of Mount Tom still holds the last of the light while the yards below it have already gone blue with shade. larkin tree and landscape works those yards — mowing through the long valley growing season, edging the walks, and hauling off the leaf fall that comes down the hillside in sheets. The work is plain and it is visible: a lawn that holds its stripe, a bed line that stays where it was drawn. Easthampton's ground runs from river flat to hillside slope inside a mile, and each kind wants something different from a mower. Knowing that difference is most of the job.