Cement Leaves Everywhere

It was another beautiful day yesterday, here on Vancouver Island, mid 70’s again, so it was just a day of puttering around in the yard for us. As I was trimming the lawn edges with my trusty weedwacker, I was surprised to see how many “cement leaves” we have decorating the flower gardens and ponds as well as a few other areas. That’s right – cement leaves!

Last summer, Paulette began collecting large leaves that had fallen from trees around our neighborhood. When I asked her what she was going to do with them, she told me she was going to make cement leaves for the yard! I just kind of shook my head because I had no idea what she was talking about.

But, it wasn’t long before Paulette had a little assembly line going out in the back yard to make these leaves. First, she filled a small wooden frame with wet sand, then used a real leaf to press down in the sand both forming a mould and leaving the outline of the leaf in the sand. Next, came the pouring of the cement into the mould and then pressing the same leaf on top so it would adhere to the cement.

Once the cement was dried, it was just a matter of taking the new cement leaf out of the mould and peeling, or scraping, the leaf off – and voila!! Paulette made a whole bunch of them and I guess sometime last fall she placed them in various locations around the yard without my even noticing – not too much of a surprise there!!

Paulette’s very much into arts and crafts, so I have no idea what this year’s project will be, only that there will be one and that it will turn out to be pretty good – just like the cement leaves!