Nests, Eggs and Golly Bard

"Stick Nest"

Last weekend during a lull in the weather, my husband called me over to where he was working and showed me what had just materialized. It was an upside down nest of sticks that had formed when he had taken off the lid of the garbage can and turned the can over on top of the contents in our yard debris cart. The sticks had previously molded into the nest shape in the smaller can, where he had placed them the week prior after having pruned the Gravenstein apple tree. "Andy Goldsworthy," we said simultaneously to each other, in reference to the nature artist. Well, we both agreed the sticks were too lovely to give over to the recycling company just yet, so he cut them into still shorter lengths and we dropped them helter-skelter into a 14" high cylindrical vase. They looked beautiful in the vase and we enjoyed them there for a few days, and will, no doubt, enjoy them there again. But in the meantime, I had something else in mind. A couple of days prior to the "stick nest" occurrence, I had been visiting Golly Bard's Drawing Room, where Holly had posted her second series of nest and egg watercolors. I love the graphic quality of Holly's work, and as you can see, her nests and eggs are beautifully spare.

Well, last Christmas, I had received some decorative eggs from my oldest daughter that I have enjoyed immensely thoughout the year. And this Christmas, I was delighted when I opened a gift from my youngest daughter and found a beautiful ostrich egg that she had collected while working on a farm in Ecuador, and had blown herself. So with Holly's nest paintings fresh in my mind, and the bevy of sticks at hand, one thing led to another and the result of all this is that the little eggs have landed on top of the now down-sized nest of sticks, and the large ostrich egg sits, grandly, nearby.

In the meantime, Holly has posted the third installment of her nest series so be sure to check out her wonderful paintings on Golly Bard's Drawing Room and in her Etsy Shop.