Cold settles into the Surry County bottoms first — some November mornings the vineyard rows south of town lie white with frost while the ridges above are already in sun. Hills Lawn & Landscape works right up to that line each year, closing the season with leaf clearing and a final low cut, then beginning again when the ground stirs in March. In between comes the steady round of mowing, edging, trimming and clearing drives and walkways, week after week through a Blue Ridge foothills summer. Lawns here climb and fall with the land, and holding one uniform across that pitch is the craft of the thing. Mount Airy, Dobson, Elkin, Pilot Mountain and the Yadkin Valley in between.