Late September along the old Champlain Canal towpath, and the afternoon turns the color of cider. Top Notch Landscaping mows and maintains lawns across Schuylerville and out along the farm roads toward the brick mills — regular cuts, string trimming to the fence lines, leaf and debris cleanups once the maples start letting go. Grass in this corner of Saratoga County grows in bursts between cold snaps, so the schedule tightens through May and eases as the field corn browns. On the last cuts of the year the Green Mountains sit low and blue across the eastern sky, and a lawn striped even and put to bed for winter is worth standing still a moment to look at. Come April the same yards get raked awake again.