First of two visits to Treadwells on August 2, just after I bought a new baseball cap – top quality, of course, from Beauchapeau on Queen Street. The meal at Treadwells was excellent, especially the starter, which was very thin strips of duck breast with goat’s cheese and water cress. Jewish couple at next table queried it (they thought it might be ham), but it was actually both duck and delicious.

The meal was followed by a play at the King George III Theatre – Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. Totally brilliant in every way.

On our final day in Niagara on the Lake, we did a little tourist shopping and then walked down Queen Street to where it hit Lake Ontario, and then back down a parallel street. Had a light lunch at Treadwells (mussels in my case), then saw two more short plays at the George III – both by Shaw. Well acted, but not a patch on Stage Kiss. Admittedly I was dozing off a bit after 6oz of wine. There was a dash of rain while we were in the theatre, but it had cleared up by the time we walked back to the car (still at the hotel) and drove to the Ravine Winery, where I had a burger (pretty good) followed by Blueberry Tea cocktail, which is basically a mixture of amaretto, Grand Marnier and tea. New to me and superb.

From there we drove home quite quickly and watched some more of W1A.

Very warm next day (Saturday), and the children arrived early afternoon. Excellent buffet around teatime. David brought me birthday presents (an owl coaster spotted by Oliver, a Chinese sci-fi novel and a book on why Canada is so wonderful). Later Dot and I had a drawing game with Amy, and then watched some more W1A. We are now halfway through the last series.

Today is August 5, and by the time I got out of bed, the Paston Mannington event was more or less over, the children had done two walks, and Dot was off to the farm with everyone else of a female persuasion. I had a bath and read quite a lot more of the Icelandic saga. Later I took a dip in the pool after everyone else came out, and David checked Dot’s phone details, marking it as lost on the Apple site and noting that no-one had used it on O2.

I have now written seven poems plus two tanka, which is quite pleasing. For me, anyway.