Grandparents' houses ought to have mysterious and magical nooks and crannies that invite a child's imagination into another time or place.

This house fills that obligation in spades.

The most magical part of this household is the avocado tree, with a canopy that cuts out the outside world and a network of branches that easily become a house, a fort, or a pirate ship.

Less suitable to play, but still marvelous in its otherworldliness, is the Rock Room: so called, I believe, because its original purpose was to house my grandmother's lapidary equipment. It's a lean-to built off the side of the garage with fiberglass sheeting for walls. The rock equipment is still there on a lower shelf, but now the room functions mainly as a potting shed and catch-all for garden odds and ends. Besides the chairs hanging from the ceiling, which always reminded me of the floating tea party scene from Mary Poppins, there is an antique push-mower (which only seems mysterious and special if you don't have to use it) and a bullhorn-style speaker hanging in the corner for no apparent reason.