Brilliant Gardens

About Brilliant Gardens

Snow falling downtown along Fountain Avenue takes on the color of the streetlamps — amber at the curb, blue out in the middle of the block. Brilliant Gardens works those hours, plowing lots, opening driveways and walkways, and laying salt so the first shoes of the morning find grip instead of glass. A Springfield storm can begin as rain, turn to sleet by midnight and finish as fine dry snow, and each of those wants a different pass. Coming back at first light to a lot with square corners and no windrow across the entrance is its own quiet pleasure. Springfield and the towns just outside it make up the winter territory.