Free Range Chocks

The other day I got a phone call from a lady named Louise. I could hear her grinning as she asked me, “Would you like to be a chicken on Saturday? A few of our chickens are sick so we are short.” I hesitated for a minute but ended up saying, “Sure sounds fun!”

So, yesterday I met my fellow chocks and we prepared ourselves for the annual Blossom Day Parade in Hastings. First, we decorated our float, which started as a man driving a tractor that was pulling a cart ended up as a rooster driving a tractor pulling a nest of chicks. There were a variety of groups preparing themselves for the parade. Near us there was the Thai Restaurant Float – the women were all dressed in their beautiful brilliant colored silk dresses and they danced to the rhythmic sounds of beating drums, tambourines and wok lids. There were many floats decorated with flowers and were bright and colorful. Before we started marching in the parade we made sure our feathers were fluffed and practiced our chicken postures and cackles. Our float was for the Green party, which is a party in New Zealand that is for healthy rivers and communities. The lady that had the idea for this particular float, Liz Earth, I found out is a candidate for the Green party and comes up with float ideas each year—Save the Dolphins, Free Range Chickens, etc. This year she also was commissioned by the city council to make some larger then life puppets. She made a prince and princess to bring in the Blossom parade check out my web page for some photos of them. So we had fun marching along in the parade I passed out stickers and interacted with the kids. We luckily had really nice weather it was a bit windy but sunny and warm. Today it is pouring down rain and I do mean pouring.


The Blossom Prince and the little chics.
copyright Kjelsty Hanson

While I was doing the parade Glenn was playing soccer, he and his team are getting ready for the big Masters Games that are coming up in October. He loves playing soccer but I think he is not having as much fun playing with this team because it is so physical. He says it is much more English soccer – maybe they just think it should be like rugby.

That night we went to Hooly and Zotie’s place for dinner. Hooly is a potter and he and I are teaching the pottery class through Taradale Pottery. He is originally from Scotland. Their house was pretty amazing lots of ceramic characters around the outside of the house and on the rooftop. The house was painted blue with green spots on the outside. Inside there were red, yellow and green designs covering the walls. The bathroom was a bright orange. We had a fun night visiting and getting to see all the fun stuff around their house. For desert we had baked bananas with chocolate melted over top to drink we had Samoan Hot Cocoa, made from a cocoa bean pulp that was put in boiling water for a few minutes then milk and honey was added. Yummy!!