Breaking News

Grant is engaged to Clarissa Prettyman. I held off announcing it here, hoping Shane and Dorcas might find out from an email I sent them before the whole world hears it on Facebook.

When I saw it on Facebook before I heard confirmation from Shane and Dorcas, I decided the wait was over. Grant and Clarissa gave us permission to tell people rather than wait on them to spread the word. Not much waiting involved, as it turned out.

They hope to get married on the first or second weekend in August and live here afterward, at least for the time being. That makes me happy.

Grant described his way of posing the question and sent pictures of what he described. Those pictures are posted on Facebook now.

He went back into the woods on the Prettyman property and harvested some Cyprus greenery which he used to create letters and words in the snow. He decorated the question with roses and other flowers he had arranged in a tall vase or stuck separately into the snow. He had thoughtfully provided answer options: yes and no. Then he took Clare on a walk to show her what he'd done. The pictures show a rose stuck in the "yes" box--presumably the one Clarissa is holding in an earlier picture.

This all sounds like a fitting getting-engaged strategy for the outdoorsman/landscaper/hunter guy Grant is.

This business of having temporarily been empty-nesters this winter will soon become a permanent situation. I'm glad we've got some time to get used to it.