REMINDER: YOUR SUBMISSIONS ARE ENCOURAGED | | |
1. August's full moon, the Sturgeon Moon, rose, August 8th, on the eastern horizon about a half-hour after sunset. If you missed it, you can still catch it Saturday night, August 9th when it will rise again about one-hour after sunset.
2. This week, I have a Flock Friends where Divya Shroff and her daughters Janaki & Nithya share photos from their visit to the Fleurs de Villes | Flowers Make Us Happy exhibition at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee.
3. In Travel, I have the story of a man from Agra, India, who has an extreme case of the travel bug. After having visited every country on the planet, Arvinder Singh decided to take a trip to someplace new and blasted off to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket.
4. In Volcanoes, after last week's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, a volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has erupted for the first time in 600 years.
5. In Reader Submissions, I have an inspirational poem submitted by a regular reader, contributor, and dear friend, Queen Bindu.
6. This week’s classic cartoon series post looks at the Golden Age of Warner Bros. animation from the late 1930s to the mid-1960s.
7. In the Next Gen, I have a dispatch from the Flock’s roving reporter, William George, of an encounter he had in Amsterdam with a Maine Coon and his bicycle-riding chauffeur while trying to get his typewriter serviced.
8. I’m closing this week with a wrap-up of the arctic cruise that I have been posting about over the last three issues of the Flock. I strongly recommend everyone click or tap through to the documentary the cruise line produced of our passage through this wonderfully untouched world.
| | Now, to this week's Flock. | | 1. The Heavens: August's Full Moon | | August's full moon, the Sturgeon Moon, the last full moon of the summer months, rose low on the eastern horizon Friday night, August 8th, and will rise again Saturday night, August 9th, in an unusual two-night display. | | Sturgeon Moon 2025: What makes August's full moon a special 2-night affair | | |
A full moon will rise this weekend — but, unlike most, there will be two opportunities to see it appear on the eastern horizon at dusk.
The Sturgeon Moon will officially reach its full moon phase at 3:55 a.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 9, which will create opportunities for those in North America to see the full moon rise twice in successive evenings.
The best time to see a full moon rise is just after sunset, typically on the day it officially becomes full. Not only is the full moon 100% illuminated then, but it also appears in the eastern sky when it's just dark enough for the moon to be easily visible while the landscape in front of it is still bathed in the light of dusk.
However, there are occasional months when two successive evenings can deliver similarly impressive full moonrises.
When the full moon occurs during the night, both the evening before and the evening after can offer nearly identical views, but only at certain times of the year. Because the moon orbits Earth every 29 days and there are 24 hours in a day, it rises on average 50 minutes later each day
However, that's not true in August, when the full moon lies low in the southern sky as seen from mid-northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. As it's far south of the celestial equator, the full moon rises at a shallow angle to the horizon and stays in the night sky for a shorter time, causing the time difference between moonrises to shrink to around 30 minutes.
What does this mean for stargazers? On Friday (Aug. 8) in New York City, the full Sturgeon Moon will rise at 8:03 p.m. ET, just a minute after sunset. On Saturday, it will rise at 8:32 p.m. ET, 28 minutes after sunset. Both moonrises will happen during dusk — though do check the exact time of moonrise where you live.
| | Why Is It Called the Sturgeon Moon? | | From: The Old Farmer's Almanac, By; Catherine Boeckmann, August 4, 2025 | | The name Sturgeon Moon comes from the giant lake sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain; this native freshwater fish was readily caught during this part of summer and an important food staple for Native Americans who lived in the region. At one time, the lake sturgeon was quite abundant in late summer, though they are rarer today. | |
2. Flock Friends: Divya Shroff and Her Girls visit Fleurs de Villes
| | |
One of my favorite Flock Families, Divya Shroff and her two girls, Janaki and Nithya, shared these photos of their visit to the Fleurs de Villes | Flowers Make Us Happy exhibition at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee. Fleurs de Villes, which translates to flowers of the cities, is an immersive Floral exhibition that has currently had over 130 showings in five countries. Each exhibition is unique to its location because the producers work with top local florists, designers, growers, and nurseries in each city to create a unique experience. The Cheekwood exhibition that Divya and her girls are sharing with us included thirteen floral mannequins inspired by the estate's permanent art collection. Thank you, Divya, Janaki, and Nithya, for sharing your visit with us.
Please submit photos or stories that you would like included in the Flock using this link.
| | The girls pose in front of one of the floral gowns. | | Inspired by Summer Afternoon by Lillian Genth | floral design by LMA Designs | | inspired by Reverie (Young Woman with Violin and Rose) by Theodore Robinson | floral design by Rose Lane Floral Design | | inspired by Girl with Doves by Arthur Bowen Davies I floral design by FLWR Shop | | inspired by Lady in White by Frank Weston Benson | floral design by Rose Hill Flowers | | Follow the link below to learn more about Fleurs de Villes and to find out if an exhibition will be coming to a city near you. | | 3. Travel: A Well-Traveled Man | | Arvinder Singh Bahal, an 80-year-old adventurer and real estate investor, recently added space to his list of travel destinations. After visiting every country on Earth, he completed a trip to space aboard Blue Origin. This launch marked the 14th human spaceflight of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard Program, which has flown seventy-five people into space since its inception. | | Agra-born man Arvi Bahal, who visited every country on Earth, blasts off to space in Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin flight NS-34 | | |
Arvinder Singh Bahal, an 80-year-old adventurer who has travelled to every country on Earth, soared into space on August 3 aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin NS-34 mission.
Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal is a real estate investor born in Agra, India, and now a naturalized U.S. citizen. As per Blue Origin, Bahal has visited every country in the world, including the North and South Poles, and skydived Mount Everest and the Pyramids of Giza.
| | 4. Volcanoes: Russian Volcano Erupts for the First Time in 600 Years | | Scientists believe that there may be a link between last week's 8.8 magnitude earthquake that caused the tsunami that flooded Hilo, Hawaii, and the first eruption in 600years of the Krasheninnikov Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. | |
Krasheninnikov Volcano Erupts for the First Time in 600 Years — and It May Be Linked to a Massive Earthquake
The volcano erupted on Aug. 3, spewing an ash plume that reached about 4 miles in height
| | From: People, By: Bailey Richards, August 3, 2025 | | |
The Krasheninnikov Volcano just erupted for the first time in centuries.
The volcano, located in the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia, erupted in the morning of Sunday, Aug. 3, Reuters and CNN reported, citing Russia’s RIA state news agency and scientists.
Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), called it “the first historically confirmed eruption of Krasheninnikov Volcano in 600 years,” per the outlets…
Girina said that prior to Aug. 3, the last recorded eruption of Krasheninnikov was in the 15th century, according to the BBC.
The KVERT head also said the eruption may be linked to the massive earthquake that hit Russia less than a week earlier, the outlet said.
| |
5. Reader Submission: An Inspirational Poem
| | My dear friend and grandmother to Janaki and Nithya, Queen Bindu, passed this inspiring untitled poem on to the Flock along with these sage words: 'We need others, we need ourselves, and together we make successes. | | This Poem is Written So Beautifully… | | |
How Can You “SM_LE” Without “I” ?
How Can You Be “F_NE” Without “I” ?
How Can You “W_SH” Without “I” ?
How Can You Be “N_CE” Without “I” ?
How Can You Be a “FAM_LY or “RELAT_VE” Without “I” ?
How Can You Be a “FR_END” Without “I” ?
So “I" Am Very Important!
But How Can I Achieve “S_CCESS” Without “U” ?
How Can I “LA_GH” Without “U” ?
How Can I Take A “C_P” of Tea Without “U” ?
How Can I Enjoy The “S_NSHINE” Without “U” ?
How Can I Have “F_N” Without “U” ?
And That Makes “U” Also Important AS “I”
Therefore humans ( U & I ) = WE need one another in Life to be Happy.
Work together and achieve Greater Things. Let’s Propagate Positivity and shun Negativity.
| |
6. Cartoons: Warner Bros. Golden Age
| | |
Last week, I posted about the start of Warner Bros.' animation division and the creation of the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoon series. This week, I'm looking at what is considered the Golden Age of Warner Bros. cartoons, the late 1930s to the mid-1960s. This period was a highly productive and creatively innovative era in American animation. During this period, the animators refined the early characters, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. The studio created new characters that would become household names, including Bugs Bunny, Tweety & Sylvester, and the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote duo. The writers, animators, and directors worked in teams to develop a fast-paced and clever style of humor that often incorporated surrealistic and satirical elements. Looney Tunes cartoons from this period won six Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film between 1947 and 1958.
Looney Tunes Cast of Characters
| | Looney Tunes -- Golden Age of Looney Tunes - Special | |
7. The Next Gen: A Dispatch from William George
| | A while back, the Flock’s roving reporter and shipping data analyst, William George, was in Amsterdam and sent me this report of an encounter he had with a local typewriter collector and his sidekick, Klook, a Maine Coon partial to spending time in cafes. I apologise for not getting this in sooner. I got caught up in my trip planning and missed getting it in. | | I was walking around Amsterdam when I saw a hand made sign in someone's apartment window advertising antique typewriters for sale. I was traveling with a Hermes Baby ultra portable I used to make fun postcards for friends which needed some maintenance, so I thought I might be able to pay whoever put the sign up to do that. | | The person wound up being the man in the photos, and he's apparently the most prolific typewriter collector in Amsterdam. His cat is named Klook and is an enormous Maine coon. Klook rides on his shoulders as he bikes around the city and hangs out with him at cafes. | | 8. Beth’s Arctic Cruise: Wrap-Up | | Bunafross Waterfall with my daughter Violet and Silvan, our new friend from the cruise ship. | | |
I’m back in New York, New York, now. Enjoying the late summer in Central Park and hoping to get tickets to the Broadway play, The Great Gatsby.
For the past three weeks, I’ve been posting updates on my whereabouts as I sailed around the Arctic Ocean on the cruise ship SH Vega. It was a breathtaking trip of a lifetime. I hope everybody enjoyed the photos I took of this ruggedly beautiful and wonderfully untouched part of the planet. The cruise line, Swan Hellenic, produced a stunning documentary of the whole trip, no dialogue, just beautiful video set to music. After the journey’s completion, when we had all had time to return home, Swan Hellenic sent a link to this video documentary as a “Welcome Home” gift to each passenger. The imagery is so powerful that I was moved to tears. If you watch only one video from this issue, please watch and enjoy this beautiful film.
| | Swan Hellenic Arctic Cruise Documentary | | These Flock regulars are always here for you: | | Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories! | | I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our third year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story. | | Subscriptions & Idea Submissions
Reminder: Your submissions are always welcomed. | | |
Feel free to forward this email to a friend. If this was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your very own Flock Newsletter, you can sign up here. If you have any questions or suggestions for future Flock resources, don't hesitate to contact me.
Your fan and friend,
Beth
| | | The information and materials contained or referenced in this newsletter are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified medical professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before beginning a new health care regimen. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical advice or care based on anything contained in this newsletter. | | | | |
