My Beautiful Dead Flowers

These are the most beautiful flowers I've ever gotten. Yes they are dead, and well, I had to cut a little mold off the stems, but I just love them. They began life as a birthday bouquet for Tara. Back on Dec 27. They prettied up the kitchen table for a long while. When they were past their prime, I tossed them over the porch railing onto a bed of snow and ice. Certain that by the time the snow melted and anyone was out there again, the flowers would have blown away, been eaten by a fierce flower eating rodent, or otherwise dispersed. Well, that didn't happen, we had a mini- New York January heatwave with a 50 degree day and the boys played outside and the snow melted. And there was the knock at the front door. And Aidan was standing there, so lovingly carrying all the dead flowers he found outside. "Look mama, I picked them just for you!" it was so sweet. I had to keep them. So they are once again prettying up the table, but just a little further away from the food.