October turns the mountainside above Arroyo Seco into bands of gold, and the sage flats running west toward the gorge go silver in the evening. It is the season of last mows and long cleanups, when everything the aspens and cottonwoods let go has to come out of the yard before the cold sets it in place. The work is plain and satisfying: cut it down even, rake it out, trim the edges back, haul it off. The air thins and chills by five o'clock, and a finished yard looks twice as neat under that light. Leaving a place buttoned up before the cold arrives is its own quiet reward.