Happy Thursday, friends! Have you been watching the Big Bear (California) bald eagles' nest this year? Jackie and Shadow, the mating pair of bald eagles who live there, have two little eaglet babies now who hatched just a week ago or so. We're fascinated with them! It's literally a breath of fresh air to watch how nature follows its yearly path, in spite of us humans.
This is a screenshot from their YouTube channel.
The other cool thing we have been following for the last week is the flight of the Orion spacecraft around the moon and back. The liftoff, the moon flyby, the 40 minutes of radio silence until they came around on the other side of the moon - fascinating! We're looking forward to seeing the splashdown off the coast of California tomorrow evening.
Something we connected with this event was that the last astronauts who went to the moon were on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Mike was in the Navy at the time, and the ship he was on, the USS Ticonteroga, was the ship that was sent to pick up the Apollo space capsule and the astronauts. Mike was a helicopter crewman, but he was not in the helicopter shown in the photo. He was back there on the ship - he tells me he was the "flight deck trouble shooter" that day - apparently meaning he had to make sure all the helicopters were ready to fly when needed.
Closer to home, younger son has been experimenting with a sour dough starter, and made his first loaf of bread the other day. It was delicious!
LeeAnna's question of the week is about the season of spring. I love spring! We have had a mild, dry winter, so it has been very brown here, but spring has brought the green back. The lilacs are blooming, too, and they smell so good. We were just smelling them on our afternoon walk today. Lilacs really mean spring to me!
Oh how interesting about Mike and what a wonderful story. I have been fascinated with the Artemis space flight too. I look forward to seeing the return of the astronauts. The lilacs are beautiful. I am sure the scent is Heavenly. Have a wonderful day, Diann. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting about Mike and his association with the Apollo flight! Great memories. We are fascinated with Artemis II and are so glad this is happening - it has been a long time. I love the cheeriness of the crew and Christina's hair! :)
ReplyDeleteThat must have been so exciting for your husband! Wow! Lilacs blooming already! They don't bloom until late May around here. Trying not to be jealous!
ReplyDeleteOoh - that's a lot of cool stuff. How neat for Mike to be so closes to history! The bread looks delicious. And I love all the bird-cams that are popping up this time of year.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting factoid regarding Mike! I too enjoy lilacs. Have you read "Where Lilacs Still Bloom" by Jane Kirkpatrick? You might enjoy it.
ReplyDeletethat is neat that Mike was near the Apollo mission back then. We have been paying attention to that too. I had not seen the eagles though will need to check that out.
ReplyDeleteMy Guy found an eagle to watch on our trip last week. How very cool that Mike was able to see that last Apollo touch down. Spring is my second favorite season. I love all the flowers, but I'm not a big fan of the associated allergies.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I was trying to tell our great grandson today about watching the first Apollo flights. He wasn’t too impressed with how old Pa and I are! . We did watch the splashdown also. In fact no dinner was cooked at this house. We ate cereal. Now that’s, “ glued to the TV”! No sewing for me this weekend, we have a new puppy!
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