Anne Blackwood has very kindly written to us to share this story of Mozzie, the king parrot and Harriet’s astonishing origami artwork.

Having seen Anne’s story, Elizabeth Mackie kindly sent through an accompaniment that adds to its depth and character wonderfully.

Thanks to Anne Blackwood

OK, so you know I’m loopy. And I may well be even more so in light of recent events, which, in my life, are now referred to as ‘The Incident’ (losing my dear Mozzie).

When it comes to spirituality, Mozzie and I did not adhere to the standard heaven and hell bit. However, we held our own beliefs and tried to live good lives. After the deaths of my mum and his dad, we had some experiences that we liked to reckon were related to them, wherever they were in the ether.

My mum’s is related to the fact that she said she would come back as an eagle after hearing John Denver describing life in the Rockies and the wonderful eagles that lived there. Long story short – we’re sure she succeeded. Eadith the Eagle is infrequently spotted over here, albeit more often recently.

Ten minutes before The Incident, Mozzie and I had been admiring the king parrots that congregate here at Christmas time. I have been a firm believer that, on a 40-degree Christmas morning, Australia needs its own Christmas identity – not that of rosy-cheeked children, snow and ice skating. I’d say nothing suits an Aussie Christmas better than king parrots, with their wonderful green and red plumage.

A few days later, a male king parrot started to make its presence felt by flying past my shoulder, sitting under the fern at my back door and then swooping up in front of me. Jen and James also experienced this cheeky boy. He’s still here long after the other Kingies have flown to greener pastures, so I’ve installed a birdbath for him and his mates to fluff about in.

So I bang on about this to David, Elizabeth, Harriet and Angus Mackie, along with Kerry and Will Piddington, on Christmas Eve at Mittagong. In their usual kind ways they listened. Then, about a week later, Ashton and Caroline Roskill call in and, for the first time, a king parrot arrives and demands to be hand fed! Mozzie loved a party and would hate to miss out.

In his honour, I asked Harriet, origami artist extraordinaire, to copy a simple origami parrot for me. When she arrived at Wakefield Park this weekend, she’d made this amazing life-sized, three-dimensional origami parrot. You thought that puny bit of folded paper was a king parrot? This is a king parrot!

I just wanted to send a special ‘THANK YOU!’ to Harriet and to everyone, for showing me and my family such kindness and support. Where would we be without Lotus?

Much love,
Anne.

PS. What better bird to come back as than a king parrot, when he was profoundly red/green colour blind?

An accompaniment by Elizabeth Mackie

Having read Anne’s story and receiving some lovely messages from Zed and others, I’d like to send a big thanks to everyone for their involvement and response!

The king parrot, which we called Mozzie, arrived the afternoon before we were to have an impromptu lunch with The Roskills, The Elliots and The Piddingtons. It was one of those rare days when all of us were going to be together, as Winston was briefly home from London and we were all free to make the trip to Mittagong.

We had never had king parrots at our new home until Mozzie (the parrot) arrived. He was on his own and gradually over the coming weeks invited all of his friends to stay. These days Mozzie comes and goes, he is a very busy boy, but all of the girls have stayed behind and we love them.

The wonderful part to this story is that on the day Mozzie appeared, he hung around all night and was still with us the following morning. He was also here waiting patiently for our friends coming for lunch.

Ashton and Caroline, Winston, Kerri and Will, Dana, Zed and Jett all took turns saying g’day to Mozzie. Mozzie was walking on to their arms, looking into their eyes and just talking to them. It was as if Mozzie was taking the time to talk to all of them one by one. It was one of those purely magical moments that we were all blessed to be a part of.

Like Anne, I do not believe in the whole Heaven and Hell thing, so I was completely mystified by this extraordinary event. I do not know what Mozzie said to everyone, or they in turn to him, but it was just a lovely time that I will always remember.

It was just one of those things that make you pay attention to what goes on around you.