hot cross buns

A day late, to be sure - but then, the Farmers' Market (where these were on sale at my favorite bakers' stall) isn't open on Fridays.  Hot cross buns seem to have been an C18th British invention: I didn't realize that they not only spread, in the C19th, throughout the Empire (makes sense) - and, evidently, to the US - but that the Australians seem in particular to have taken them to heart - and indeed, make them in other flavors - with chocolate chips instead of dried fruit (now, that might tempt me); coffee- flavored, and so on.  When I was little, we always used to have them on Good Friday morning (it was regarded as a heresy to have them on any other day, of course), which is possibly why I associate them with a sense of sadness appropriate to Good Friday, since they were consumed after the Home Service (later Radio 4) played (at 7 a.m, at 8 a.m.) a particularly lugubrious version of "There is a green hill far away/Without a city wall)" to commemorate the day.  I took particular pride in knowing (I'm sure my mother told me this very early on) that "without" meant "outside," in this context - not that it lacked some kind of erected barrier made of stone or brick.  I wonder when Radio 4 stopped playing hymns for major dates in the church calendar?  Easter Day would be greeted by "Jesus Christ is risen today," and so on.

Alas, I don't like hot cross buns (it's the fruit, I think), but I consoled myself with a bacon and cheese scone, instead.