The 2021 film 'River' – promoted belatedly for Earth Day 2024 …

 

Our fresh water supplies … the rivers of this world … and their journeys around our planet …

Okavango delta - an inland one
in Botswana, Africa

River, rivers burning bright, sparkling perspicuity for life on earth … though this now is almost not so …

… recently we've had fire, floods, storms and all manner of natural plagues that our earth has to deal with, humans have to cope with as per their apparent ability to believe they can control ...

Ural River - flowing south from
Russian into Kazakhstan

… two mega river floodings very recently in the enormous continent that is Eurasia (Europe, Russia, China and the far East); fires burning again in western Canada …

We've manipulated some rivers – which haven't done us any favours … however to get back to my subject for Earth Day … the film 'River' – which our film society promoted in 2022 …

Pearl River basin

It's an Australian film – with an outstanding exploration of the timeless relationship between human civilisation and Earth's rivers, in all their majesty and fragility.

Six rivers in six continents … reflect the extraordinary differences of each of these water-courses … I cannot now remember exactly which rivers were highlighted …

Our six continents
(Eurasia counts as one)

There's captivating cinematography, with distinctive narration from Willem Dafoe, the music score is exceptional … and is available to listen to …

I've been wanting to write about this film for ages and need to re-watch it … there's so much to it – and I often need to see or read things twice to absorb the salient bits I can get my head around …

Poster for the film

If you get a chance do watch 'River' – it is different … the trailer (2.28 mins) will tempt you to see the film …

As the tag line notes: 'The arteries of the planet are the arteries of humanity' – it is a cinematic odyssey exploring the waterways that have shaped our world, in all their majesty and fragility.

Please see Wikipedia for further details of
these amazing instruments - the didgeridoo

The score features iconic works by composers including Bach and Ravel, music by Jonny Greenwood and Radiohead, new original music by Richard Tognetti and the peerless indigenous composer William Barton …

Australian Chamber Orchestra logo

Jennifer Peedom's astonishing visuals are extraordinarily powerful … reminding us of the fragility of this world, and the damage we, as humans, are doing to it - we are poisoning it …

Let us seriously reflect … each day we must do a little more to help life on earth … the rivers are our life-blood …

Belated Earth Day … take your time, absorb the film and its impact …

Directors Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti;

Robert McFarlane's accompanying words, narrated by Willem Dafoe;

Music by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Radiohead;

Conductor, composer and artistic director – the Australian violinist Richard Tognetti; and indigenous composer William Barton, and didgeridoo player.

Enjoy – it will make you think …

Australian Chamber Orchestra 'River' film link ... 

IMBd - link to trailer for 'River' ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Fish Bananas – Banoffee Pie…

The chef, Ian Dowding, who co-created the Banoffee Pie recipe, together with his proprietor at the Hungry Monk restaurant, Jevington, East Sussex … down the road … came out to talk to us about his life in general …

Ian Dowding's - a cook's note book

Now I don't want any comment on the image selected for his book … makes me laugh to think about it together with the title … but I do love artichokes … a summer treat.

Ian talked to us about how he came to being a chef, and how he learnt his trade and then the creation of the delicious infamous Banoffee Pie … oooh so good.

Banoffee Pie - made with a digestive base

He uses a pastry base – me … I'd always go for the digestive biscuit base … but here we go – the English digestive base, or the American Graham cracker base …

... I'm not sure I've ever tasted a Graham cracker … though to me it would be hard to beat the digestive, crushed and mixed with melted butter before being formed into a base.

Digestive Biscuits

Banoffee Pie is delicious … I could easily crave it – but banish the thought … and, though I'm sure it's around, I don't see it … so am not tempted.

What's not to like … digestive crust, boiled cans of condensed milk … I remember doing this for another dessert (coffee mousse) I used to make when I was a youngster …

... the boiling of the cans gives us the goooey toffee base, add sliced bananas, use thick cream (your choice) with a coffee flavouring to cover … and serve … with or without a dusting of coffee …

Camp Coffee
 - coffee syrup

Coffee flavouring when I was growing up – was made with Camp Coffee … for coffee milkshakes and desserts (never coffee per se) … oddly my brother mentioned they'd run out of Camp Coffee for a pudding (as we call them) for a supper party over the Easter weekend … he was noting after the dessert he'd had a very wakeful night overdosed on caffeine!

Ian Dowding's talk starting out in the culinary world – it was interesting to hear his take … and now I have his book, together with Le Repertoire de La Cuisine - which contains a very concise précis of over 6,000 recipes (c/o Escoffier) ... 

... this intrigued me – and no doubt I'll use it to bring some amusement to my posts in future … as I can find 'artichoke bottoms' in it … this is the reference source where I could not find the 'Groër sauce' per my last post …

I must comment on Fish Bananas – Ian has a recipe for them … a meaty fish, bananas, mango chutney … which does sound interesting …

Through the keyhole -
to all you eclipse chasers ... 

That concludes the Fish Bananas and Banoffee Pie post … all tastes to the mill of your delight! And a big thank you to all references in the previous post … Monty Python, JD Salinger's Nine Stories …

Enjoy the Eclipse tonight in that large continental mass over the pond! I do hope the weather plays fair … the experience is well worth it - even if it's only a partial eclipse like the one I experienced 25 years ago …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

WEP Get Togethers # 3 … Fish Bananas …

 

It is April Fool's Day isn't it … so we could have Fish Bananas … I've come across them – more anon … but for now some funnies – other than fishy bananas!

First bi-monthly: June, August, October
and December in 2024

Predictive text cropped up for me today – when I commented on a blogging friend's post … that became a glogging friend (since repeatedly globbing – though could also be a drinking glogging friend as it's a holiday) … how often do words slip through uncorrected, particularly in text form on the phone …

Beech tree - happily living on ... many lives,
with an undergrowth of Spring cyclamen

When I was on the Committee as the dinner administrator (see my post 30 January 2023) we'd wanted to know the dinner menu as the Ukrainian Ambassador was our guest speaker and we needed to ensure the evening went smoothly.

The hotel sent up the menu for us … including a chicken dish:

"Sauteed supreme of Chicken in a Groer sauce, caramelised apples, thyme scented wild rice with chanteney carrots”

The wise old owl typing here -
sensibly realised she'd need
a photo of the guarding owl

Fine … but I didn't recognise Groer as a sauce – I checked in Mrs Beeton, in “Louis Saulnier's Le Repertoire de la Cuisine book”, on the net … nothing.

I did dig a little further – but the only thing that popped out was an Austrian Cardinal, who served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1986 – 1995.

He DID NOT have a sauce named after him – his only claim to fame was as a paedophile … he denied those allegations unto his death … I had to laugh at the sauce's name though - I'm glad I picked that one up!

Deer statue ... 

The next menu also had – to me – a glaring error in it … which had gone from the hotel to the Chair, to the administrator for the dinner bookings, back via the same route to the hotel for printing out the menu card put on the dinner tables … no editing or checking …

Vegetarian option: Mushroom, leak and broccoli short crust pastry pie, roasted vegetables and seasonal vegetables.

Still Life with Leeks by Carl Schuch
(1846 - 1903)

The Leek Pie was very tasty … but I'm glad it was leek, the vegetable, and not a plumber's leaky pie!

I had a lovely Easter day over with my brother in the still very wet Alfriston … with roast lamb, an Easter egg hunt in the garden – as shown … with family and friends … all in all a good last day of March.

Banana Wrasse - to be found from
Sri Lanka to the Hawaiian islands

Happy Spring and I do feel easier and ready for the longer days ahead … as Denise mentions life is flashing by ... to one all happy thoughts …

(PS I used to put in diacritical marks ... but omitted them here) 

and the other thing re Groer ... was it should have read Cider sauce ... 

# 3 WEP Together from the administrators ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories