August 4, 2021

Dear friends and family,

I realized that I am sorely overdue for a little update. I have had trouble motivating myself to write about what we have been up to for the past few months, but now on this lovely August morning, I’m ready to share. I write to you from a rocking chair on the front porch of our new home on Mackinac Island. There’s a lovely breeze rustling the leaves and I am watching a chipmunk make use of some old oats that were a leftover treat for the horses that helped bring our furniture up to the house. It’s quite peaceful.

Certainly a lot has happened since the end of 2020. Matt and I both received our COVID vaccinations early in the year and literally experienced our worlds transform. Suddenly we were able to eat out, to perhaps get a drink at a bar, and most importantly, to actually interact with other people. I still appreciate all of these things much more than I did before the pandemic began.

Spring was a bit of a blur. We spent my spring break at lovely isolated cabin near Lexington, VA, I survived the semester, we got to visit both Dad and Matt’s family, and we spent a few days in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with my Mom. We also had a bumper crop of cherries on our Montmorency tree, and I am excited that we still have quite a few waiting for us in our freezer back in Cincinnati.

May and early June were darkened by the passing of my aunt Suzie (my Father’s sister) and an accident my father incurred while attending her funeral. Suzie was a wonderful person and she is already missed. Dad is doing much better now, and I hope things continue to go nicely for him. He’s a really good sport but has had a rough couple of years and really deserves things to go well for him now.

Cincinnati graced us with remarkably nice weather, but this was somewhat tempered by the awakening of our regional brood of 17-year cicadas in mid-May. We were able to head North just in time to avoid their peak. In mid-June, we navigated our way through the logistical challenges of moving ourselves and quite a bit of furniture up to our newly-completed house on Mackinac, and we have subsequently devoted time to getting settled and situated.

We returned briefly to Cincy in July (waiting until the 4th of July had passed as this is not a particularly pleasant holiday in Cincinnati) and enjoyed spending a little quality time with the rabbits, who are not particularly keen to make the 8-hour drive + ferry + walk, bike ride, or horse-drawn wagon trip to our house on the island. We also tanked up on fresh vegetables from our farm share, caught up with friends we had not seen in quite some time, and enjoyed a remarkably lovely afternoon at Schützenfest. This was the first German festival I have danced at since early March 2020 and I’m quite pleased that it went well.

Then we retreated back North and we’ll be here until close to the end of August, when school starts back up again. Being on the island feels timeless. Our internet service is non-existent, which means if we want to do anything online, we typically need to walk or bike to a hotel (old mansion) that is about a mile from our house. This has minimized the amount of time I have been spending on the computer, which I think is a very good thing. I definitely still feel pretty drained from the virtual academic existence we have been enduring since March 2020 and I’ll have plenty of time to stare at a screen again when the semester starts.I also feel like I deserve this little break. I just recently learned that I have been promoted to Full Professor and also that two grant proposals have been funded.

My days are mostly filled with moving mulch (we received about 20 cubic yards of wood chips just before moving in) and painting the inside of our house. Both of these endeavors are not particularly taxing mentally, and I have really appreciated the down time. Fall is going to be full. I have a new student joining my lab and my PhD student is going to complete her qualifying exam. I’ll also need to start making some progress on those funded projects!

Take care, and enjoy the remainder of summer, 

💕 Brooke