I did this puppet show last week. My first ever public one (I had done one before, at the launch of my Hermit’s Web book, but I believe I must have known pretty much every single person of the hundred people who were attending the launch and I can’t really call this public.) I am not a performer. My intention with puppets is for people to participate in the play and tapping into their own creativity, rather than just producing a show for others to watch. Coming up with a storyline for puppets is an invaluable cathartic process.
Anyway, when my friend asked me to do a puppet show at her book launch I happily agreed. The subject of the book is something I strongly believe in. Now my friend has come up with another scheme I can’t say no to either. It is an arrangement that suits the Dedes to a T. You might know that we have just renovated our house and our backyard is a total shambles with heaps of rubble and mountains of dirt dug out from under the house. We will have to redesign our garden and now that I am working from home I am extremely keen to turn it into a producing vege patch. My friend offered me her chickens for a few months to clear up and fertilise my backyard, so we can start planting in spring. Over Queen’s Birthday weekend we scavenged around our property to find material to build a chook house with. The old fence we took down did just fine. We even salvaged the nails that held it together and reused them. As it is with such things, what should have taken a day, took us three (two of them mainly scratching our heads), but we are now proud owners of a ramshackle chook mansion and are looking forward to receiving the lodgers.
dedepuppets 
A very fine chook mansion if ever I saw one.
We even improved it further today. I certainly hope the ladies will do a good job in our garden after all this sweat and heart ache we put into the mansion.
Ah… the previous comment said it all before me. But it’s very fine indeed and I’m sure your ladies will be flattered. bonne chasse aux oeufs. Give my love to the Dedes, we have missed them. Mr Punch is coming along by the way, I must put him into the blog. Tony
yeah I checked Punch’s blog yesterday, Waiting for the show!
the Dedes have done a lot of leg work lately (very difficult for them as they don’t have any), and I am pretty sure we will hear some good news soon.
I know chickens have a lot of personality and no doubt they will inspire puppet characters and storylines.