Abby, hot cross buns & reading progress

I've spent the morning making hot cross buns. They're on to the second rising now & I have the cross mixture all ready to pipe on & then pop them into the oven. I love making hot cross buns. The dough smells so delicious, I use lots of spices & it's a lovely dough to knead. These have become an Easter tradition at work so we'll be enjoying them for morning tea tomorrow. Unfortunately I've had a camera malfunction - actually, I think the camera's had it, - so I can't post a photo of the actual buns. My friend P is coming over tomorrow to finish installing my new water tank so he will have a look at the camera as well. It was only cheap as I didn't think I'd need a camera very often. Well, blogging has changed my mind. I love taking photos of Abby & the garden & my cooking, so, if the camera has died, I'll be out next week looking for a new one. So, the photo above is not authentic but gives an idea of what my buns look like. I wish you could smell them!

The camera problems also mean I don't have a picture of Abby in her new purple sparkly collar. Actually it was while I was trying to get a shot of her in the collar yesterday that the camera gave up the ghost. So, here are a couple of photos from earlier in the summer.

I'm halfway through two terrific books. Tracy Borman's Elizabeth's women & Ann Cleeves's Black raven which is the first in the Shetland Quartet. Perversely, I started with the last book in the series which I loved & reviewed here. I'll be getting back to both books after lunch.