Savannah Land

Enter,......... Savannah Land, for the next few days our home is transformed into a world of wonder with chalk drawings sprawling to the far reaches of our porch, tiny flowers placed in bowls of water, acorns from another adventure lay on the desk of her room. This process started much by accident- when I transformed our sons room into a nice space for our granddaughter to visit.  Previously it was just an empty room for the past six years where I dumped clean laundry ready to be folded- but overlooked.  I proceeded to clean out a couple of drawers for her clothes and some Disney VHS tapes, added a toy box , my daughters doll house, and a few stuffed animals. It was official, this is her room- she made this clear this week when she created a sign with her name on it – complete with a hand drawn flower and taped it to the door. Her space, is not of course limited to her room it surrounds us as we continue to find memories of her visit for days, as she has touched every corner of the house with some bit of sparkle or whimsy.

Joy in the form of paper cut feathers lay upon the floor as our granddaughter creates a series of Mardigras masks at our dinning room table. She has just learned to use scissors and the world is her oyster- with a roll of masking tape and crayons she breathes life into what was once a piece of boring typing paper. She is only four. Noticing the skill and thought process behind such a creation I asked her if she learned to make masks in preschool- she plainly answers, “ No, I thought of it in my dream.” It is then grandpa points out , “ Well, you know that is where all good ideas start.” She nods and continues to work sharing every detail of the process with us as she creates rainbow colored strips of paper that she cuts into various sizes of feathers and tapes to the back side so the tape will not show. After working several hours it is now time for lunch and she only allows a meager one square foot of table for her lunch, we do the same, as every inch of the dinning room table is now a workshop similar to Martigras World in New Orleans. As she completes one she carefully tacks it on the the cork board- as she announces to whom it belongs. “ Jordan can wear it a dinner next time,” she points out. This continues well into the afternoon until she has made mask for everyone in the family including her ever- present stuffed frog.

fLorAl aRRangEmEnt AboVE cOmpLiMents oF sAvAnnAH