Grandfather stands on the northern skyline above Newland like a sleeping profile, and in July you can set your watch by the thunderheads that build behind it after two o'clock. JLH LAWN CARE gets the day's mowing done under that clock — cutting, trimming, edging, clearing the walks — and is loading the trailer about the time the first cool gust comes down the valley ahead of the rain. Summer growth up here is fast and forgiving of nothing; miss a week and the yard tells on you. Kept on schedule, though, a mountain lawn is a genuinely handsome thing, dense and even, with a clean line where it meets the gravel. Rain right after a fresh cut only makes it greener.