First light comes over the east hills and lays itself flat across the grass down by Brand Park, and suddenly every blade Elmira grows is worth looking at. Rays Landscaping works that early stretch of the day, mowing while the dew is still burning off and the air along the Chemung is cool enough to be kind. Cutting, trimming, edging, spring and fall cleanups — straightforward work whose whole point is how a place looks the moment you pull up to it. A striped lawn with clean borders holds morning light better than anything else in a yard. Elmira has plenty of them, and this is one reason why.