I moved into the area when I was 8 months pregnant with my son, I think becoming a parent can be rather isolating experience even without a move. I found myself an outsider in a quite close knit religious Jewish neighborhood.
My son is now 7, and we have built a life for ourselves there now and I think we are well integrated in our own goyishy way.
Rueben plays in the park at the top of our rd, and knows many of the local kids though he is much younger than them they say hello and let him join in sometimes.
Our closest shop is roughly 67 Rueben's (we measured in a math exercise the other day)from the top of the rd. Rueben reads the magazines I never buy, and the staff who are lovely pretend not to notice. If he's lucky the toy he was coveting on the covers the previous week will turn up in the 50p box, which provides a large percentage of my home ed curriculum.
When we are feeling flush we go have lunch in a cafe we call "The Greek Place." The owner is a man called Andy who has never held it against us that in Rueben's earlier years we spilt juice on the floor on nearly every visit.
On Thursdays we volunteer at the community library, some weeks its just us, and we read endless books. About every other week a collection of local odd balls come in and play very competitive scrabble, and let Rueben join in (which never lasts long)
Where we live we are surrounded by patches of nature, We regularly go to a patch of land to forage elderflowers, blackberries and bit later on the Elderberries. the other day we discovered our spot had been cleared of trees in preparation for the construction of offices I think. its a bit sad, esp as its right next to to a big block of disused offices built in the 80's. Now we need to walk a bit further and we have a little forest, which spreads nearly all the way to Salford uni. we wandered about the other day and saw what we think was a fox hole and found Oak galls which is a bit less tasty but also a bit more interesting.
When I asked Rueben what would better the neighborhood he said he'd like to see a theme park, I don't think this will happen but there is talk of putting in bigger kid climbing frames an what have you on the top field, I'd like to see this happen as there isn't really a place for older kids to play, Rueben at 7 is already too big for much on offer in the park over the rd. but on the whole I really like where I live, and all though we stick out like a pair of sore thumbs we have found a place for ourselves.