The strangest thing about moving to Canada so far hasn't been the people, the schooling system or the relaxed lifestyle, but returning to England for a holiday, and then seeing what had happened to the agricultural world while we have been away.

It felt like I'd never left. We were staying in the same house, seeing the same people, and doing the same things as we had before we had left. I'd been looking forward to going back for weeks, because I missed everyone, but I don't think I had been away long enough for it to make a difference.

Travelling round England was in itself quite peculiar. On one hand it was all so familiar, and felt like normal, and my Canadian life was in the back of my mind, almost dreamlike, but, equally, I didn't fit in. I felt like a stranger in my native land. Everywhere was so busy and cramped, and I felt very claustrophobic.

When we did come home, to Canada, the changes were unbelievable. Our neighbour has a field that surrounds our garden, and has planted it with maize. Before we left it was 2-3ft high, when we returned it was about 8ft.

Farmers had also started harvesting their maize grown for sweetcorn and for silage, even though it wasn't planted until May. My dad wondered why nothing was planted until May, and now we have the answer – it grows faster!

All winter wheat had been fully harvested by the end of July. A lot of it came off the combines on to the lorries and was transported to the elevators, to be used for bread, animal feed, and lots of other things.

The most astonishing thing was the rate at which hay was cut and baled. All you need is two consecutive sunny days – one to cut it, and the next to bale it. Because our days are so hot, and there is so much less damp in the air, the hay doesn't need a long time to dry out.

Straw is baled mainly into little bales, and the trailer is hitched onto the baler. The bales come out straight onto the trailer, and there are a couple of people on the trailer stacking them. My brothers have been helping with this, and apparently it can get quite hard by the end of the day, when you are on your third trailer!

Vined peas are quite a popular crop to grow, purely because there is such a demand for frozen peas. The dairy trade is buoyant at the moment, and increasing every week, because the borders have been opened for imports and exports of all dairy cattle.

Many changes have occurred during the three weeks I was in England, including the difference in the Canadian faming landscape. But there's one more difference; the fact that Canada now feels like home, and England like a nice historical place to go
on holiday.