Fresh from the oven

I've begun to get back into bread making recently, inspired by our son Huw. I try to vary the mix each time, although I haven't yet started experimenting too much with the process - I'm using Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'cheat' which gives a yeast loaf some of the qualities of sourdough. This one was made with white flour, a few seeds (sunflower and pumpkin) and a little very good Welsh honey. I started it working late last night when I got back from a blues gig in a local pub, then finished the process this morning.
What I love as much anything (apart from the flavour) is the way they look and feel when they come out of the oven - the complex variations in shape and pattern and colour that come from the timing, heat, positioning, and that also show some of their recent history - for instance, whether I pushed them around at all while they were still proving. (Interestingly, in this picture the one on the left had been lower in the oven, an example of the vagaries of fan-assisted cooking.) Although very young, they're like old men in the way their lives are written in their skin.