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Emma Bland Smith's avatar

Oh, this is lovely! (Room With a View was my favorite book and movie as a California teen...) I hope you don't mind my adding a few... You're so inspiring!

Plucking nasturtiums from the backyard to put in a salad. Whisking up the vinaigrette for said salad right in the worn wooden salad bowl, every night. Foraging porcini and chanterelles. Musseling, and a big family mussel dinner afterwards. Christmas presents wrapped in newsprint. Irish coffees on Christmas morning. A stack of worn dish towels in the kitchen. A cold and windy bonfire at Ocean Beach in SF. Sweaters instead of sweatshirts. Biking instead of driving. Watching the brave souls doing their wetsuit-free laps in Aquatic Park in the bay. A chocolate bar wrapped in foil. (Why are so many about food??)

I'll stop now, but that was a very fun writing prompt! :)

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@oliviajoffrey's avatar

Each one of your observations hits the sweet spot of memory! Wooden salad bowls! Biking places! Wow you are good.

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Emma Bland Smith's avatar

Your essay was so evocative and inspiring! I keep thinking about it.

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@oliviajoffrey's avatar

Thank you Emma. Perhaps I will keep wandering into these Byzantine streets in my memory then.

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Pedro De La Cruz's avatar

Love love.

Now I want to see that film.

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@oliviajoffrey's avatar

It’s pretty fabulous.

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@oliviajoffrey's avatar

Oh my I must hunt down this cookbook! How remarkable. Thank you for sharing this parallel experience Lindsey.

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Lindsey B's avatar

Couldn't agree more. I also saw Room with a View with my mother and had the album that I would wistfully play over and over again as a daydreamed about what my life would be as an adult. I also had the Room with a View cookbook by Ismail Merchant which I loved - family meals he cooked for the crew with pictures of the sets and Florence.

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