We couldn’t leave Ontario without visiting our dear friends Nobuyo and Michael and their son, Hermann one more time. And so we spent a couple of nights at Eigensinn Farm. As always we had way too much fun. The visit was punctuated by a turkey named Joe and one of the dearest women in the world, Nobuyo’s mom, who we all refer to as Okka. In between there were the curious drop-by city dwellers wanting to check out the farm and the chef, a trip to buy feed for the animals, a little fishing on Pike Lake to catch a pike as an arrival treat for Michael’s mother-in-law, Okka, and some laundry.
Michael inherited a pet turkey last year who goes by the name ‘Turkey Joe.’ This turkey is large. He is persistent. He follows or circles you while making the sound of an opening and closing umbrella. In short, he is intimidating. Because he chooses to chase and bite most women on the bum we have the impression that he is attracted more to men. He seemed to develop quite an attraction to Christian this visit. There are a few photos here which illustrate his amorous affections but the photos do NOT accurately describe the situation we witnessed that evening. It was a little gross to be honest. And I did suggest that Christian should shower before retiring to our bed in the van for the night.
As for Okka, she arrived from Okinawa, Japan on the second evening of our visit. This is a journey that is roughly 24 hours door to door, probably longer. She is 80ish and has made this journey on her own for the past few years. She arrived full of good cheer and with suitcases full of goodies like seaweed, octopus (caught by her son), sea snails, spicy artisanal crackers, Awamori (Okinawan Sake), Mos Burgers for Hermann and much more. We are always so happy to see her and were delighted to be able to see her before we left on our journey. She will be here for the next couple of months gardening, ironing and helping out at Haisai and Eigensinn. It is easy to see where Nobuyo gets her good humour, love of family and friends, generosity and desire to feed everyone that enters her home. We hope her stay is as wonderful as always and with an excess of Oh Henry bars (a secret pleasure she discovered last summer).
We will miss our friends!!!
