went downstairs to meet darryl for lunch and found myself out of doors in a 60 degrees afternoon - startlingly mild considering i had to go to widener in a puffy coat yesterday. we walked all the way up mass ave, well past porter square to cafe barada for lunch. (previously the furthest i had gone beyond porter square for food was to kaya house and christopher's. we reluctantly pass up elephant walk (but another day, we must! it looks splendid. ) and pass by kate's mystery books and pemberton farm which was very like the nurseries you see around charlottesville, except somewhat abandoned-looking (darryl went in later to look for a plant for his apartment, or else a stone statuette) and the other half was a sort of small supermarket with farm produce, and half a delicatessen and bakery. (i have too many halves, don't i? it was all four of those things in one. - they had lots of fancy looking cakes - but i think the cakes at formaggio kitchen look lovelier. anyway. we had very good hummus (extremely smooth paste with plenty of lemon and olive oil) and tabouleh with very little wheat and lots and lots of chopped mint and parsley, and a warm, creamy spiced lentil. also a spiced cake of pumpkin, chickpea and spinach and lamb shish kebab. (darryl wanted baklava and i wanted rice pudding, but we coldn't manage it.) on our way back, i abandon darryl to go into anohki because i thought i might get a look at their scarves. it was agony having to pick one out of the six or seven dozens available, beautiful, hand-block-printed 30-inch-square, indian cotton scarves, some of which were so finely weaved they felt silky. in the end i chose two - one with flamboyant brush-drawn red peonies blossoming on dark chocolate-plum-black stalks, all over a cream background. the edges are a sharp grassy green - the sort of green one sees in the 40s and 50s - a touch autumnal. for the other pale swirling vines of sage and and grey and pale brown. i have to go back for more. there was a delightful one with dogwoods scattered on an azure background. spring is the season for cotton scarves!