September mornings in the Lansing river bottoms arrive under fog, the low ground near the Fenner trails white to the knee until the sun burns through. Foxscapes likes that hour — mowers set high after a dry August, trimming close along the beds, the fall cleanups already lining up behind the first leaf drop. Come winter the same routes go quiet and hard, and the work turns to plowing, shoveling and ice control before anyone has to guess at their footing. A yard put to bed properly in November is a yard that wakes up early in April. That is the arc of a year here, and it is worth keeping both ends of it.