Dried Hydrangea from my yard

Monday, the weather was nice, almost like spring, so Bill and I stepped outside to trim the shrubs, rake the leaves off the driveway and remove the wind fallen evergreen limbs from the lawn. The hydrangea bushes were covered with beautiful dried creamy flowers with perfectly formed crowns. Each petal still held its shape by the remaining veins but the fiber between had decayed during the winter. This gave the entire flower a delicate, lacy and transparent appearance.

I trimmed back all the stems on the hydrangea bushes, removed the blossoms then brought a few into the house to sketch and paint later in the day.