This weekend I made what might be the last peach and berry cobbler of the summer, as well as Italian bread. I tried a different bread recipe this time.

As previously, I used Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Dessert Book: High-Summer Cobbler with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust, using peaches and raspberries. And I added ginger and nutmeg, which the original recipe doesn’t use, but I do, because I LOVE nutmeg.

The Italian bread was from by Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It’s quite different from the recipe I usually make, from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook A James Beard Award Winner (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks).

I’d meant to make pasta Monday night, so we could have Italian bread, but I forgot I had a haircut, so, perhaps today.

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Green bank is the center of the National Radio Quiet Zone, to reduce the amount of radio interference the telescopes pick up. The most obvious thing this means is that there is no cell phone reception. But it’s a lot more than that. Once you go past the gate, you cell phones must be turned off as must all digital cameras, so I was unable to take any pictures up close to the telescope. (You can buy disposable cameras at the gift shop, as they don’t cause interference.)

But it’s more than that.

On site, all electronic equipment–including microwave ovens–must be kept in Faraday cages. And locals occasionally receive visits from Green Bank personnel, who then fix their faulty electronic equipment (such as microwave ovens).

The telescopes operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and anyone can write a proposal for project.

The telescope sits on four wheeled stands that are a bit like train cars, which allow the telescope to rotate a full 360 degrees to point in any direction.

The angle of the dish can also be changed. The thick white arc with the black stripe running down the center contains teeth that allow the position of the dish to be raised and lowered.

The dish of the main telescope is larger than a football field, so it can been seen from quite far away.

There are multiple telescopes on site, to take advantage of the radio quiet zone.

And in the science center, there is a scale model. I took several pictures of it, if you’d like a better look the structure.

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

We amused ourselves at the Science Center.

Here’s Michael:

Some self-portraits:

Michael’s picture of me:

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

It was an awesome place to geek out.

But one thing especially struck me, and that was the number of old cars and trucks still in use.

That license plate is new, and expires in 2020. So these are not just junked vehicles that died in place. These are vehicles that are in regular use.

If anyone tries to tell you that scientists are “wasting money” they are completely full of shit.

As a post script of sorts to the last post, there are some songs that make me feel better.

Love this life
Don’t wait till the next one comes
Gonna pedal my faith
The wheels are still turning round, turn round

Maybe the day will come
When you’ll never have to feel no pain
After all my complaining gonna love this life, gonna love this life
Love this life, love this life

And apparently I can’t embed this one, INXS – Bitter Tears

Bitter tears taste so sweet
I’m seein’ my way for the first time in years
When the love around begins to suffer
And you can’t find love in one, in one another
Push away those bitter tears, bitter tears

Also: fun, Carry On

If you’re lost and alone
Or you’re sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

And lastly, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Impression that I Get

This is National Suicide Prevention Week.

As many of you know, my friend Janiece lost her daughter to suicide this summer, and another friend’s cousin committed suicide earlier in the summer, so this week has been on my mind more than normal this year.

First, my thoughts and love are with Janiece and her family, as they learn to live with this terrible loss. Second, I want to note that JR and Stacey are doing a memorial walk in honor of Janiece’s family.

But mostly, I just want to remind people:

 
 
DEPRESSION IS A FUCKING LIAR.
 
 

I’m not just saying that because The Bloggess says it, but because I know it to be true.

I’ve suffered from depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder since I was a teenager, though it wasn’t until my late 20s that the OCD was diagnosed, and it I was in my mid thirties before my anxiety was diagnosed.

Uncountable are the number of days where I struggled to get out of bed, struggled to keep from self-harm, struggled to keep going.

Uncountable are the times the voice in my head has told me that I was worthless, that my very existence caused more harm than good for those around me.

I know how hard that voice is to silence, because it’s coming from inside your head–somewhere you can’t escape–and it’s repeating and replaying every cruel thing that has ever been said to you, and every time you have hurt someone, even if cruelty wasn’t your original intent.

I know how your brain can be an echo chamber for all these negative thoughts and horrible memories.

But even still, I know–I KNOW–these things are lies. I know that I am much more than the sum of all the mistakes I’ve made in my life.

For me, what keeps me going is the knowledge that there are people who would be hurt–and hurt terribly–if I was gone. So I keep going, because I don’t want to cause more harm than I already have.

BUT

It’s not all dark days and despair.

To counteract the dark inside my head, I try to look, every day and all the time, for beauty and joy and silliness and happiness in my life, and to cultivate those things, so I have more moments of joy and silliness.

And I try to remember that depression is a fucking liar, and without me, the world would be a far less silly place, and that can’t be a good thing.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center

International Association for Suicide Prevention

How to Help Someone Who Is Suicidal

Veterans Crisis Line

Post Secret on Suicide Prevention

We’ve had an unusual number of visitors recently. Luckily, I have plenty to entertain them. Such as this week’s word: rocks

Decided to fiddle with the Zucchini Bread recipe to work in some whole wheat flour. And to use the zucchini I bought so I’ll have zucchini bread this fall and winter.

I made two batches, one where I let the zucchini drain while I put the other ingredients together. I think I should definitely do that again.

The base recipe is The New Settlement Cookbook.

Zucchini Bread
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnut, chopped
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups zucchini, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two small bread pans.

Sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and walnuts.

In mixer, beat eggs until light and fluffy, then add in vanilla and oil. After well mixed, add in the zucchini.

Mix in the flour mixture until it’s thoroughly moistened. A couple of dry spots are fine.

Put into bread pans and immediately bake for about an hour. A cake tested should come out clean.

I also made English Muffins, from Marcy Goldman‘s The New best of BetterBaking.com: 200 Classic Recipes from the Beloved Baker’s Website

I used more whole wheat flour than her sponge called for, and perhaps because of that, perhaps for another reason, the batter-dough was really really wet. Far more a batter than a dough. Rolling was out of the question, but I did scoop about 1/3 cup to rise.

What I may do next time (besides adding more flour) is to skip the second rise, and just put the batter-dough straight into the muffin rings on the griddle. That might reduce some of the mess. We’ll see.

No pictures of the English muffins yet–they went straight into the freezer so they’ll last for a couple months instead of a couple days.

Saturday we drove down to Blackwater Falls. We were feeling pretty lazy, so we mostly went to see the various views of the various falls. We skipped the canyon, as there was a wedding going on in the clearing.

Elakala Falls

Blackwater Falls

More pictures if you click through to Flickr.

Saturday we drove down to Blackwater Falls, and of course stopped in Thomas for lunch, and stopped TWICE in Davis for ice cream.

We went to the Flying Pig for lunch, and I think we both liked what we got. They served breakfast all day, so Michael got french toast. Since I was saving room for ice cream, I just got the cheese quesadilla. Inexpensive and plenty of food.

Meant to go back to Thomas and get a picture of my favorite building after the light hit it, but my ankle was hurting, so we skipped it.

Much of Thomas is slowly being renovated and rehabilitated, but it’s a slow process.

Here’s the Cheat River along Route 50.

And this is why we preferred to be home before dark. Most of this section of Route 50/92 is like this.

Because I have the BEST TOYS.

So what did I read in August? A pretty even split between fantasy and mystery.

As always, the book title will take you to my review of that book, the author name will take you to a list of books by that author, and Amazon links will give me a penny or two if you click through and buy.

Mystery
Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon
Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon
Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon
Acqua Alta (1996) Donna Leon
The Fencing Master (1988) Arturo Pérez-Reverte translated by Margaret Jull Costa

I love Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti and Venice and the food–ah the food.

 
Fantasy
Night Watch (1998/2006) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield
Day Watch (1999/2007) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield
Twilight Watch (2003/2007) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew
Last Watch (2009) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield
Fade to Black (2013) Francis Knight
Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis
Kitty in the Underworld (2013) Carrie Vaughn
Magic Rises (2013) Ilona Andrews

I love Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch series. For me, the second book is the weakest in the series, but it’s still quiet good, and one you have to read.

Carrie Vaughn and Ilona Andrews are both authors that I automatically pre-order, because I’m almost never let down.

 
Anthology
Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013) edited by Paula Guran

I had this for awhile before I read it, mostly because it was a large, heavy book.

 
Comics/Graphic Novel
Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom (2013) Lauren Beukes, Bill Willingham, Inaki Miranda

So that’s fifteen books, nine of which were re-reads, three of which were pre-ordered new releases.

I think for the first time this year, I read more paper books than ebooks, due entirely to the re-reads and the pre-ordered new releases.

Paperback: 6
Trade Paperback: 6
eBook: 3
Re-read: 9

As to the genre break down, fantasy won out this month, but just barely.

Fantasy: 10
Mystery: 8
Anthology: 1
Comic: 1

This week’s word is: jubilee

There was a car show at the Jackson’s Mill Jubilee, and much to Michael’s chagrin, I was drawn to the old cars.

I don’t know what it is, but I love the shape and look of old cars. They make modern cars seem cheap and tawdry in comparison.

Check out the bed of this truck and toolbox:

Here’s a dashboard:

A slightly more modern dashboard, with AM radio!

Look at that shape! Isn’t there something regal about it?

This was NOT in the car show, but was fascinating never-the-less: