I Went on a Winter Walk...

Saw my favorite tree

Found some pretty pine cone flowers

Picked up bunny tracks...

all over the place!

Saw a weaver's nest, I think!

And thought this was neat.

It was finally above 32 yesterday, so I took a nice long walk. There was a lot to see out there, too! I saw more than bunny tracks, but didn't take any pictures because they just looked like a bunch of messed up snow. There was a lot of ice melt, but for some reason, at the downspout on the big brick warehouse, the water was still icy and frozen. All the other icicles around were melted, even the five foot one on my apartment! It snowed again last night, though, so I'm sure I'll see some more icy goodness... if it's pretty, I'll share it with you!

Nests in Design

I'll admit it. I have a nest fetish. It's not as weird as it sounds, because I've discovered that a LOT of people have a nest fetish, thus making it more mainstream than say, a fetish for collecting owl pellets. (Sorry, just watched Legend of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.) So these simple little bird's nests (below) inspire so much...

I think that nests remind us of the idea of "home." And the awesome creativity of birds never ceases to fascinate! So it finds its way into our psyche and sparks our imagination, and then we create things like...

Artful pieces by Sarah Saunders

and lovely little card holders like these, that I think are fabulous...

or fanciful lighting designed like a large woven bird's nest...

And something that a weaver bird builds like this...

Image borrowed from here

 ... inspires something like this...

or this...

Clever hanging speakers, shaped like nests!

It's amazing, really, how complex and lovely bird's nests can be. They're made of bits and pieces of twig, string, animal fur, human hair, leaves, spider's webs, feathers, moss, you name it! Birds find what they can out in the world around them, and they create their homes using only their beaks/bills, their little feet, and some cleverness and ingenuity!

I absolutely love this nest chandelier above. It's a work of art by Tracey Barnes, called "Bower Bird Nest Chandelier." I adore Bowerbirds. They are one of my top five favorite birds. They are little artist birds, so of course I love them!

A bowerbird bower

And what about these wild-colored nest chairs...

For me, there's nothing quite as cozy as a nest! And there's nothing quite like a nest-inspired design esthetic to get my creativity flowing!   

Obsessions

We all have our things that we are passionate about, don't we? You might love to collect photos of birds, or botany. Someone else may collect baseball cards or Matchbox cars. In the movie, "Amelie", one of the main characters collected discarded photobooth photos, and recordings of funny laughter! As for me, I have a few different passions... one might say "obsessions", and one of them is for seashells. 

Moon snail shells from New Jersey

I find their forms to be fascinating... the shape of each one, the colors, are all vivid examples of Mother Nature's infinite creativity and glory. I cannot be sad or despondent when I am shell collecting. Even a visit to a natural history museum with a shell collection makes me insanely happy! Every time I find a seashell, it speaks to me. It tells me that there is so much to wonder about on this earth. It tells me that there are other creatures on this planet that have the ability to create and make beautiful designs that will hold us in thrall. They don't even have to think about it, either, as humans do. They are made to create wonders, as a form of protection, for their homes. The variety of shells in the world makes me buzz inside with a weird kind of electricity! I would like to be able to see every kind of shell in person, holding it in my hand. This is obsession.


Which brings me to another of my obsessions: bird's nests. For the same reason that I find seashells fascinating, I find bird nests fascinating.... they build sometimes only for a home for their eggs to become chicks, but other times to entice mates! They build not only for function, but for form. The variety of nests is amazing... from the tiny little hummingbird nests (see below)

Hummingbird nest (with a butterfly inside)

A nest found in my camellia bush, abandoned. Egg is wooden.

which are made from tiny bits of moss, twigs, animal fur, human hair and other soft bits and held together  by spider's webs to the flamboyant displays of the bowerbirds of New Guinea, which go to a massive scale, including towers of plants & twigs, or piles of same-colored stones, flowers or even human debris, used for it's color and texture... the bowerbirds are true artists, whose motivations are to lure a mate in and create a family. They go to great lengths to show their individuality and creativity to their potential mates! Watch this video of David Attenborough, where he shows a bowerbird bower. It's the most basic reason that anyone does anything, isn't it? To find love, a mate, someone to share your world with. To find someone who sees things similarly to the way that you do. The bowerbirds and humans... looking for love. :-) Other birds may have other reasons for their nest building techniques, and they are all extremely fascinating to me, although the bowerbirds make the most amazing display. I fell in love with them after seeing an article about them in National Geographic. These are gorgeous examples of what bowerbirds create, and opened my mind up more to the idea of why we make art. See how your obsessions can take you different places? It's wild!

So what are YOUR obsessions? Where have they taken you? I have a feeling that mine will take me to New Guinea, Florida, and a return to the Bahamas... as well as other places! I hope you'll share some of your obsessions with me!