Mankind has built some amazing structures. The Sydney Opera House designed by Jorn Utzon, interior by Peter Hall — awesome. The Golden Gate Bridge designed by Joseph Straus is an hour away and never ceased to draw a sigh from me and Rick when we cross it into San Francisco. Other amazing structures: Frank Owen Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa Spain, Julia Morgan’s Hearst Castle on the California coast. And the list of fantastic structures goes back centuries to the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, The Great Wall of China, Stonehenge in England. So many fantastic structures to see in person or in books or watching programs like “How Did They Build That?”
Or you see the greatest architects on the planet in your own backyard. Take a good long look at a spider web or a bird’s nest. Talk about amazing! A manmade structure gets destroyed by fire, earthquake or tidal wave and it’ll take months, if not years to rebuild it. If a spider web is destroyed, you’ll see it back the next day. There are spiral, cob, funnel, tubular and sheet webs. All spectacular examples of natural engineering. The orb spider even adds artistic decorations to its web. And the only material needed to build these spectacular structures is silk from their spinneret glands. No crew. Just the labor of one.
Now that winter is here, it’s easier to spot bird nests hidden most of the year in high branches of a tree. Birds use everything from bendable twigs to lichen and spiderwebs. Brush your dog and leave the fur floating and it’ll end up in a nest. Put out some thin silky ribbon and it may end up in a nest (and make it easier to spot among the leafy branches come spring).
Like the spider, each species of bird has its own DYI design. The long-lasting eagle nest that can be up to 5-6 feel in diameter and 2-4 feet tall and last for generations, the flexible nest of a hummingbird that sticks like a tiny cup on a branch, dangling nests like the oriole, scratch nests like the turkeys in the fields behind us, cliffside nests of seagulls, floating nests of ducks, loons, coots, underground nests for burrowing owls, cavity nests pecked out by woodpeckers. Oh, how they love the telephone poles in our area. Then end up looking like woodpecker condominiums. And not one of these birds graduated from a university! How’s that for natural engineering and creative talent and work ethic?!
The world God created is filled with wonder, isn’t it? You don’t have to get on a plane or train or car to go somewhere to see something fantastic. It’s all around you. Just slow down and look. Enjoy! And don’t forget to give thanks to the Master Designer.