Intended to make a quick stop in the office at the library on Saturday, but then could not help noticing how vivid the long-established-yet-ever-changing wall of photos and postcards suddenly looked. This was because all the artificial lights were off. There was only the daylight (diffused and pale) filling the large north-facing windows. I allowed myself to get sidetracked for a while taking pictures of my pictures.
The oldest layer of images (now mostly obscured under later ones) were pinned up about ten years ago when my occupation of this particular space began. Over time, quite unsystematically, bits have slowly been added or removed according to whim. Then 17 months ago things changed. Mabel Watson Payne began remorselessly to colonize this wall in exactly the same way she now dominates this site. As was inevitable, considering that my granddaughter plainly possesses a sort of absolute force majeure.