3000 leaves ...

We visited the Lost Trades Fair on Saturday. It was a brilliant event and one that we highly recommend.

While we were there Vaughan, Erin and I spent quite some time watching one blacksmith at work.  Vaughan asked what was being made and the man responded "gum leaves"!

In between shaping the metal, he found a website on his mobile phone - to show us a photo of "the Blacksmiths' tree".  We were amazed and even more so when I did further research once home again.

Vaughan was keen to acquire a leaf for us, so we brought one home.  I'm not sure where we'll display it but it was well worth $10.00!

We decided to see the tree today and stayed for an hour or so, walking around the Strathewen Bushfire Memorial. 

It's a well-planned remembrance area and we chose a lovely day to visit. 


I happened to have our leaf with us, so was able to photograph at the base of the tree - which is made from 3000 leaves, crafted by hundreds of blacksmiths around the world.  You can view galleries of the leaves, including the many sponsored leaves.  (I've just found photos of the tree being built and erected, here).

Strathewen is only about 50km from home and we were pleased to have travelled there today.  We drove past apple and pear orchards, saw one echidna at the memorial park and another one crossing the road when we headed home! 

There were beautiful mosaic letterboxes in the area, which were part of the community's rebuilding after the devastating fires.