Delicate

After the excitements and outings of the past week, we spent a morning in the garden, Lo Jardinièr clearing weeds and preparing for a bonfire while I pruned and tied the climbing plants around a rustic arbour and bench that our son once named in Welsh y cornel cariad (which translates as 'the love corner' but doesn't sound the same in English!). Oh, and had a bit of fun with my lenses and LoJ's while he was working! This is wild clematis, Clematis vitalba, growing over one of our 2-metre-high bay trees.

This morning I heard news of the death of the 23-year-old Indian woman who had been gang-raped, shocking in so many ways and which has led to huge demonstrations for changes in the law and attitudes to women in India. Arundhati Roy pointed out on BBC radio that the Indian government itself tolerates rape by its own soldiers, so there is a lot to change. And even in the west we can't be complacent as rape is a common and incalculable crime in all countries. Violence against women is frighteningly common, with about 100 women in the UK and about 150 in France being killed each year by their partners (women kill their partners too, I know, but often in different circumstances and it happens far less often). I hate all violence but find sexual violence particularly shocking and incomprehensible, that something that should give pleasure becomes a vicious attack. We all have a long way to go.