Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Film Music, Painting and Cheese

I have just received an important Polar Bear video from the World Wildlife Fund appealing for help in rescuing the bears. For some reason I haven't been able to post it to my blog, however, the link is here if you would like to watch it. For some time we have been trying to find the name of a piece of music which is regularly played on Public Television or PBS. The local station is WNED out of Buffalo, NY. Being incredibly bright, and having written to PBS with no luck, I suddenly thought of writing to WNED themselves. Guess what, I got the answer. Its John Dunbar's Theme from Dances With Wolves by John Barry - we knew we knew it but just could NOT place it. It really is a haunting piece of music. The first time I saw the movie I thought the beginning was very slow. Funnily enough, when I saw it again on TV I didn't find it slow at all, possibly because I was expecting it to be. I think its a wonderful film. Isn't it funny how things have changed. Once upon a time it was always good cowboys/soldiers against bad Indians. Finally people have wised up and realised the Indians were not the baddies at all. Of course today, the Indians are causing a lot of problems in Canada at least, which is not making them very popular. As you can imagine, I would love to be in a position to make friends with a wolf. In case you are wondering and just can't remember, it was Kevin Kostner. I have now downloaded the music from iTunes. Cost me a whole 99 cents. By the time you read this, I should be in London. No Ontario, not England. We are going to see an appraiser about a picture which, to my knowledge, has been in the family 65 years or so. It probably is nothing, but on the other hand.... It is by a well known European artist called R. Wintz and some of his paintings have sold for a lot fair amount of money. Not yer Rembrandt's of course. It's called Departure of the Tunny Boat. I don't know if its an original or not, and I don't want to try and remove the frame etc. and check it out. It is behind glass which our son-in-law thinks means it is probably a print, but then he puts his paintings behind glass. I know, I have three of his originals. On the way home I am thinking we should call in at The Springbank Cheese Co. in Woodstock and see what they have to offer. You can buy cheese from them on line, but it would be nice to visit them. They are here Springbank Cheese if you would like to read their website. I have just realised they are also in Alberta and British Columbia. However, we will not be travelling that far. Woodstock is on the way to London, ON. I see they have now started doing wine pairings on their web site. I bet we buy some Caerphilly which is a cheese from Wales which we both love. Not easy to find. I remember once in a deli in North Carolina, they ordered us some and the assistant thought it was pronounced "carefully" but its more like "cayrfilly". As its summer and time for barbecues, I thought I would pass on this recipe for barbecued vegetables. Barbecued Marinated Vegetables Serves: 6 Source: U Cook Comments: Served cold with a vinaigrette or hot straight from the grill, these vegetables make a delicious light dish, full of color and flavor 1 eggplant 2 zucchini 2 carrots 3 red sweet bell peppers 9 button mushrooms, washed 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, finely chopped 2 sprigs of fresh parsley, finely chopped 2/3 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Instructions: 1 Cut the eggplant, zucchini and carrots lengthwise into long slices, about 1/2 inch thick. Halve the peppers, remove the seeds and halve into quarters. Remove the mushroom stems. 2 Spread the vegetables on a tray, sprinkle with salt and pepper, the thyme and parsley. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and combine the rest with the lemon juice. Pour over the vegetables and sprinkle with the basil. Marinate for 2 hours. 3 Heat a barbecue or broiler and brush the rack or broiler tray with the reserved oil. Slowly cook the vegetables on both sides until tender. (If you prefer less crunchy carrots, cook them for a few minutes before adding the other vegetables.) 4 Arrange the vegetables on a dish and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar. Have a great day.

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