Why we did it.

Hi.

Now I am able to write from our new home I thought I would tell you a little bit about why we have found ourselves in wonderful Wales. We began looking at moving from our previous home in Greater Manchester about 18 months ago I think. Our boys were still young enough to take on the challenge of changing schools and making new friends, be it all in a very different location and with a different language but we hadn't always intended to move to Wales. 

Our aim was to find what we were looking for wherever it happened to be. It was not about the location itself but what the location would afford us, what it would allow us to do and what we would gain from it. Some of you may not know that we took a very long and arduous trip to Lewis in the Western Islands of Scotland last year because we saw something which might have been what we were looking for. It wasn't, but there are some things you just have to do when you are on a mission.

We found our new home on the internet initially, as most people do, and were so eager to view it that we cancelled an already arranged viewing to see it. I can honestly say that with one foot in the doorway and one look to the left at the gorgeous, blue Rayburn in the kitchen I fell in love with the house and it had to be ours, whatever.  As you probably know we had to deal with numerous problems and issues before finally making the house ours, but that is thankfully all behind us now. 

As I write this I'm looking out of the kitchen window and can see the Church and Community Centre, the school bus stop my boys will soon feel very grown up using on their own and through the top kitchen window I can just see the far hills dotted with sheep. I hate to sound smug and describe it as so idylic but for us it is perfect.

We have plans for the future, a business, growing our own, having our own chickens and the boys still being able to have a childhood surrounded by such opportunities. I would never say we are wrapping them in cotton wool or shielding them from life elsewhere but I have a postcard which is a poster from the second world war and it reads: 

Children are safer in the country.... leave them there.

(With recent events around the world we have been thinking about a summer holiday and for the first time we have really had to consider locations. I would be more than happy to stay here and enjoy the Welsh summer but I think this year will have some time away and then next year we will hopefully have lots going on that will keep us at home!)

We think at the age they are, and for the time we have whilst they are young, we are very happy for them to be in this environment. I should say at this point they have been learning Welsh since the beginning of September and they are doing amazingly well and we are immensely proud of their efforts and hard work.

I hope to share some photographs soon of our home and the surrounding area. xx