Taco meets boerewors. Tag meets piñata. Cactus meets aloe ferrox. Tequila meets Castle Lager. Football meets soccer. Conservative Afrikaaner pianist meets hippie Mexican guitar player. And the rest, as they say, is history.
If it were only that simple. He could barely string two English words together. English was certainly not her native language. But their combined artistic personalities and sense of adventure promised a world-wind romance. They met internationally. Married internationally. And chose SA to begin life as a family. They had little more than each other and a small shared bag of belongings. But they were blissfully happy and ready to conquer the world.
That was 15 odd years ago. Sauntering through their immaculate country home - the type of home you only find on the pages of a Garden and Home magazine - it is difficult to remember how simply it all began. And how instrumental (pun intended) I was in the masterpiece that is their marriage and delightful family.
Their uniquely creative talents blend like a beautiful symphony as you walk through their home and out into the expanse that is their gardens. The splendour of the mountains as their backdrop.
The merging of Mexican and Boer weaves the perfect tapestry as you wander the gardens. The scents of summer rise delicately despite the dripping sweat from over 40 C temperatures.
Around every corner is testimony to creativity. An old school bench now part of the kids homeschooling gardening project.
Of course what would a huge country garden be without a handful of cows and the flood irrigation channel full of turtles and frogs!
Every angle offers a breathtaking view and mouthfuls of smoldering semi desert air.
Thanks to the constant run off of mountain streams their garden remains lush.
Although now, in the height of our scorching summer, my arty friends comment about how dry everything is.......
Still, I always leave their beautiful home, feeling like I have been on a retreat at some exotic destination.