Light comes late to Manchester in winter, sliding low across the Merrimack and the long brick faces of the mills, and A & J Lawn Care is already out in it — plow blades scraping driveways clean while the river runs black and the streetlamps still hold. Come April the ground softens on the hills toward Goffstown and Hooksett, and the same crew is raking winter out of the beds, pulling the tired thatch loose, aerating so the roots can breathe again, feeding the grass until it stands up green and even. Summer is mowing weather: the striped lawn, the crisp edge along the walk, the garden beds tended and the yard treated so an evening outside belongs to the people who live there. They lay walkways and patios too, and set irrigation lines, and haul away what a property has been carrying — the cleanouts, the junk piles, the corner of the yard nobody wanted to face. From Derry and Londonderry to Bedford, Litchfield, Auburn and Hollis, the satisfaction is plain and physical: a place that looks cared for, in every month the year hands it.