A hole in a wall

Sometimes the most trivial things get stuck in your mind. I took this picture in Montreal, from the apartment of my family. I obsessed about what I saw there, this is why I took a picture: there is a hole in this brick wall, right beneath the bottom of the window frame. I thought it was only a broken brick at first but it is really a hole: I saw birds coming in and out of it. Maybe they have a nest there. That is my hypothesis anyway. Back when I was living in Liverpool, or to be more precise when I was working in Liverpool and living in a small suburban town near Liverpool, I was renting a room in a Victorian house. It was an old house that needed serious refurbishing, but it never happened. But I loved it all the same. And there was a hole in the wall, by the bathroom. So sometimes, birds flew in it. This hole in the wall reminds me of that time. Otherwise, it beats the hell out of me, but I literally obsessed about this hole and the birds going in and out.

Is this a nest?

I wonder... I saw it in one of the front yard's tree yesterday, and while there is no sign of a bird around there and the branch doesn't strike me as the ideal place to build a nest, as it is exposed to the weather and potential predators, it sure looks like a nest. Maybe it is just a bunch of twigs that got there by the wind, but I think it is more likely an empty nest. So sadly, I will not see birds any time soon in it, but the nest in itself still looks quite nice. Interesting how the natural world can be so aesthetic, even it its smallest incarnations, like this nest or a spider web.