As part of the ‘30 Days Around the World Series‘ being organised by Ellen from the Cutting Tiny Bites blog, I’ve written this post about some of the things that I enjoy most about living in Wales with my wife and son. I’m originally from Scotland but Wales has certainly come to feel like home since I moved here in 2007. Here are five things that make it a fun place to live and raise a family:
1. Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol (The National Eisteddfod)
The Eisteddfod Genedlaethol is a week-long celebration of Welsh language culture that takes at the start of August every year. Since moving to Wales in 2007, I’ve been to it three times. It’s been fun managing to get more out of it as my Welsh has improved. In 2013, I went to the event with my wife and then four month old son. His favourite part of the event was the tent of Twf, an organisation that promotes bilingual parenting in Wales.
2. Welsh music
We live in North Wales and are really lucky that this a really exciting local music scheme that features bands that sing in both Welsh and English. Even before I could fully understand what the bands were singing about, I’d go along to Welsh language gigs near where I work. Our son attended his first music festival when he was three months old, and attracted a bit of attention as we was wearing some very cute ear protectors.
3. Our local bookshop
We’re tremendously lucky to have a really good local independent bookshop in Caernarfon, which is only a short drive from where we live. They have a great range of books in both Welsh and English. We’ve got books for our son and also CDs of Welsh nursery rhymes at this place, and enjoyed learning Welsh language nursery rhymes at the same time as our son! We’ve also taken him to some special events, such as a sing-along that took place last December.
4. Welsh cakes
Welsh cakes are a traditional delicacy made out of flour, sugar, butter and dried fruit that are cooked on a griddle pan. I’ve made them quite a few times and am delighted that our son also enjoys eating them. In fact, he’s also helped us to make them before. I use the term ‘help’ quite loosely as he did end up spreading quite a lot of flour on our kitchen floor and try to prevent us from cooking them as he got quite attached to the bowl of ingredients.
5. Being able to take a baby in a sling to a village called Sling
To mark International Babywearing Week two years ago, I insisted on going to a village called Sling to take a photos of my wife and I carrying our then six month old son in a sling. It seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Since then, we’ve actually moved quite close to this village although its name was not the only reason for this move.
If you want to find out more about what it’s like to live in Wales, click on this link to have a look at some of the posts that I’ve written about living in Wales and bringing up our son using Welsh as well as English. To see more of the posts from the ’30 Days Around the World Series’, please click on the image below.
What are the things that you like most about where you live? Please feel free to share your views in the comments section below or on the ‘Dad’s The Way I Like It’ pages on Facebook or Google+. Remember that you can also subscribe to this blog by entering your e-mail address in the box on the right of the screen and also follow this blog via BlogLovin. There’s also now a Pinterest board for this blog as well, so please feel free to pin this post if you’ve enjoyed reading it.
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