Saskatoon

We have long-lost relations from Canada staying with us, a mother and son. Brenda is my third cousin: my grandfather never spoke about his emigré uncle (Brenda's great-grandfather), and indeed the two branches of the family only came into contact through the internet.

On a sunny evening, we drove our guests up to the top of Leckhampton Hill to show them the lie of the land - hillier with us than with them, it seems: they come from a town twice our size which I'd never heard of.

Saskatoon sounds a nice place, but a little chilly for my purposes: the average low in January is -22 degrees C. And they take rather more words to say things than we do: "You know what, I totally agree," translates as "Yes."