different

A very different sort of day today. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a whole life spring-clean through Lent. It's also a day that my husband has managed to take off, and we went to one of our favourite places, the RHS garden at Harlow Carr, which always makes me feel glad, thankful, and renewed. I came home to find that my copies of HAMMY THE WONDER HAMSTER were waiting for me. Publication date Thursday - this is not just any hamster - this is HAMILTON!

It's also the day when we heard of the death of David and Samantha Cameron's beautiful son, Ivan. What can anyone say? Perhaps that we live in a world which is beginning to realise how precious such children are, and what a terrible gap is left with the death of any child. Perhaps it's only possible to stand before God without words, mindful of the child, his family, and especially his brother and sister, who have never known life without him.