Our World - Wet

 Hurricane Sandy is nearing the coast near the Delaware/New Jersey border. The outer edge of the storm has dropped steady rain on us for about 22 hours, but no significant winds yet. Winds are predicted to increase over night with 50 mph winds in our area. Stronger winds are expected along the coast with flooding and power outages.

 

Sky Watch - Contrails

Wednesday afternoon the sky overhead was clear with clouds approaching from the west. The three spreading contrails caught my eye and I went for my camera. Also heading west were two more planes and a bird as I snapped the shutter. The last image is the above one converted to black & white with infrared effect.

Our World - Fall colors

Our trees were slow to turn color this year, just brown ones falling to the ground. On October 16, the maple showed some color (above) and by the 21-st we had brilliant colors throughout the tree. Note the oak leaves in the last photo still are green.

.

Sky Watch - Sunrise October 6

Light and Shadows - Fall decorations

Our World - Signs of Fall

 Marianne has her pumpkin girls (and gourds and leaves) on display.

 

The farmers are busy with harvest (soybeans in the field behind us).

 

 Saturday was our first frosty morning (the soybeans are gone).

 

 And the town of Thurmont (population 6,170 per 2010 census) hosted its annual Catoctin Colorfest, with over 100,00 people expected for the 2 day event. Colorfest is a juried arts and craft show with nearly 250 vendors selling their handcrafted items. In addition, other vendors setup around town. Plenty of food is available and you get a good walk if you visit all of them. Many of the items are holiday specific (Halloween, Christmas) and we came home with a few items.   

Sky Watch - Memorial skies

Last Saturday, we attended a memorial service for Eric Ackermann, G.M. His grave (he died in 1986) is in a small cemetery near the Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine. For more  images and info on Eric see my post A tribute to a Brit.

Our World - A tribute to a Brit in Maryland

 

On this past Saturday, Wing Commander Eric Ackermann, G.M., RAF was honored in a memorial service at his grave site in Emmitsburg, MD. Recently, Peter Jackson and David Haysom published a book on Eric's life. Eric's contributions to the Allied victory were in the area of radar and signal intelligence. He flew missions to detect transmissions and later led units involved in gathering intelligence. 

 

The ceremony was in conjunction with Peter Jackson's visit to the area where Eric lived the last years of his life. He wanted to pay tribute to Eric during his visit. Judy Ackermann (wife of Eric's son, Peter, who was unable to attend due to unexpected job requirements at his location in Thailand.)  then put in motion the event pictured here. Chance Bazzano, Commander of the Stonewall Jackson chapter of the Disabled American Veterans and a friend of the Ackermanns, agreed to support the effort as did the Emmitsburg Memorial Post of the VFW.
 

Judy Ackermann, and son Nick Ackermann with other dignitaries.

Peter Jackson

Placing the remembrance cross

 



British and US flags presented to Eric's family

Medals presented to Eric for service in the RAF
including the George Medal

 Eric's commission

 

Emmitsburg VFW hosted the luncheon, shown here with
Wing Commander Al Morrow of the RAF

Peter Jackson signs a copy of his book

A call from Peter Ackerman

In the 1960's Eric moved to the Washington, DC area working on communications at Marconi and later at COMSAT. Initially he lived near Washington, but later bought a farm near Emmitsburg, MD. Thus, one of Great Britain's unsung hero's final resting place is in a small town near us. Peter and Judy Ackermann are friends of ours and he, Marianne and I had worked at COMSAT Labs. Marianne also knew Eric and visited in his home. I met him briefly during our time at COMSAT, but I did not know Eric personally.

Sky Watch - Clouds

 A sample of our skies last Saturday.

Our world - Pumpkins and apples

The start of fall leads us to our local orchards for some decorations and fresh apples. We  put some pumpkins, gourds and mums of the patio (and on the front porch).

Marianne has made applesauce for several years. A mixture of gala, golden delicious and empire apples peeled,  sliced and cooked in her crockpot yield delicious applesauce. We freeze it in pint jars. This batch of apples will give us about 20 pints of sauce. The peeler is a new acquisition.