I’ve tried something a bit different this issue by scanning some of my old postcards as illustrations. The New Orleans Mardi Gras postcards are surreal, touched up photos of elfin people, very spooky. The Birmingham, AL postcards are worn and scruffed up, kind of like the city itself. There is one original photo on here, it’s of a writing spider. I took the photo in my backyard last summer. We had an absolute plethera of these spiders, one hatching after another and their webs lined the back fence. Ollie, barely three at the time, began to show a real interest in all things insect and arachnid, so of course Nana had to take photos for him to see on the iMac.

Emmett, now two, will say, “Nana… spiders” so he will probably join Ollie this summer in the quest for wildlife in our backyard.
–Valerie