There is a corkboard wall in my grandparent&8217;s house in North Carolina that is always filled with photographs.

A little like most family refrigerators, the board has been filled with bits and pieces of life &8212; snapshots, cartoons and art projects from school.

Yet, it wasn&8217;t like that all.

My grandparents are craftsmen; my grandmother weaves, and my grandfather carves wood. In my eyes, they are artists.

Yes, there are the senior portraits of my aunt and four uncles. Yes, there are photographs of all thirteen grandchildren, including a school picture of me in the third grade.

But there are also beautiful black and white artistic photographs of the Smoky Mountains and fine portraits of family pets. There are pictures of finely crafted carved wood pieces. And occasionally, there are bits and pieces of weavings and fiber art.

The entire board is an art piece, giving visitors a snapshot of the life of my grandparents.

The great thing about the board is that it has never been the same.

From my earliest recollections of visits to their house, the board has been an ever-changing organism.

And with each visit, which sometimes would be months apart, I would anticipate looking at the new and changing landscape that was the corkboard in their hallway.

For the past year, the back page of The Natchez Democrat has been like that corkboard at my grandparents&8217; house.

Since last October, when we first started publishing the &8220;Your Take&8221; photo of the day, the top right-hand corner of the paper has been this ever-changing landscape of animals, flowers and people.

Each day&8217;s picture has been a new and exciting entry into the record of the wonderful and varied life and history of the Miss-Lou.

Over a year ago, we first started thinking about how we could get readers to become a part of their newspaper. Publisher

Todd Carpenter

suggested a space that would be devoted to a picture submitted by a reader.

It was our hope that the &8220;Your Take&8221; would help tell the story of the people and places of the Miss-Lou.

Now a year has passed, and what a story we have told.

We started off the year with many gorgeous photos of balloons drifting across the Miss-Lou landscape.

Over the year, we saw many portraits of the Miss-Lou. From the twinkling eyes of children playing to the eager smiles of graduates to the look of gratitude and wisdom in the faces of grown-ups.

And of course, there were celebrities. Over the course of the year, Brett Favre, Jesse Jackson, Morgan Freeman and others have made a guestt appearance on our back page.

We also saw many dogs and cats, ranging from the tiniest Chihuahua to the fattest cat.

There were horses, yes. But there were also monkeys, squirrels, pelicans, alligators, snakes, turtles, goats, opossums, peacocks and raccoons.

And then there were the gardens and flowers. Each picture of the beautiful plants grown by residents was another addition to our beautiful bouquet of pictures.

There was no mistaking how attached residents are to the landscape. Beautiful pictures of the sun setting over the Mississippi River, Lake Concordia and Lake St. John graced the back page many times last year. Each multicolored painted sky was a testament to the beautiful country in which we live.

Thanks to our readers, an amazing story has been told through the photographs that were submitted to &8220;Your Take.&8221;

Another chapter in the story awaits.

Ben Hillyer

is the visual editor for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached by phone at 601-445-3562, or by e-mail at

ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com

.