Grace

Youngest son, George, called this morning to say he'd been asked to go to Portugal to help crew a boat 600 miles over to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. He was a little bit anxious because the request had come out of the blue and he'd planned to be at his brother Rob's house warming party tonight.

As a parent it's a worry too as he isn't an experienced sailor yet. I hope the skipper accepts it's a delivery sail (for the forthcoming ARC transatlantic race) and doesn't push the boat at night. They've had mechanical problems with the engine and George has to take a part out with him. At least we can track his yacht, Cheeki Rafiki here.

We were thinking of going to Ripley bonfire tonight (always held on the last Saturday of October) but it'll be busy, also it doesn't feel autumnal enough yet. All that should change when the clocks go back and when Monday's expected storm has swept through. The ground is soft and the trees still in leaf which makes them vulnerable to high winds. Let's hope it's not anything like as bad as the storm of 1987 when 15 million trees were lost.

I wanted to highlight the track of water from this swan; not much difference between black and white and colour to be honest, except for the beak.