What day is it? Where am I?

It's cloudy today. We went for a walk this morning, through the hazelnut orchard and down the lane past the century farm. A century farm is a farm that has been around for over 100 years. This farm, Chegwyn farm was started in 1909.  Our neighborhood is named after it, and where our house sits, was once a large hazelnut orchard stood until about 5 years ago.  When we first moved back to McMinnville (my wife grew up in this neighborhood), the orchard was still standing. When we built our house, it was surrounded on two sides by the orchard, and since then, they have cleared out and the neighborhood has continued to expand and roll out. 

The family name is Chegwyn, which is a welch name. And if you were to drop a pin most anywhere on a country road on a map of wales and look at the google street view, where we live in McMinnville could nearly pass, save it were the amount of douglas fir trees. 

For example.. Above is Wales, Below is a look at the area surrounding our town. 

Someday, I hope to travel out to Wales, and Southwestern England. I have a lot of ancestors from that area, so I imagine that living up here in the Pacific Northwest in Yamhill County makes me feel at home, like the Bowden family from centuries past. 

This week, after being in state mandated lockdown for the majority of the month, I found the opportunity to take peaceful walks in the surrounding orchards with the kids or with Abi has been a source of solace. I am thankful that in this time of healing for Abi, the rest of the world has taken it upon themselves to take a break as well. Thank you world.

It's been a few years since I have blogged.. and I don't even know many people who are still blogging, besides James Gurney and his illustration blog. 

Here we go.. welcome back reader, it's been a while.  I'll fill you in on the details as time goes on, and I'm hoping this, besides being an antidote to watching the Julia Childs movie Julia & Julia today, which for all the best reasons, reminded me how much I like blogging, and have lost my way with endless scrolling on social media. So, with everything slowing down in the world, here is to hoping a blog would help me to take the slow form of social media and have something with a bit more substance to contribute. 

Signing off, your co-captain and friend, 

Colt Bowden