Ashlea Strydom
Grahamstown
There is a phone call that I look forward to every year. It's a call that will come out of the blue and brighten my spirits. "I'm coming to visit," a voice at the other end of the line will say, and there will be little shouts of joy as I let Grant know that Ash is on her way.
This year was a little different. This year involved Grant and I informing Ash that we were in town to visit, not for long, but wanting to see her. We went to lunch - it was innocent enough. And during the course of a three hour meal and conversation, we managed to convince Ash to come and visit us once more. For Christmas nogal!! We had our doubts that she would brave the bus trip, but she did, making it in one piece, more or less, and with a lot of stories to tell from the journey.
When Christmas day came around, we sat together, Grant, Dee, Ash and I, under our tiny, makeshift tree, and tore wrapping paper to shreds (which I would later force the kitties to sit in so that photographs could be taken) as we unwrapped gifts. And while many wonderful gifts were given and gotten, one stood out as the bestest for me.
"I hereby promise to do a photo shoot with you before I leave... (and you won't even need to nag this time hehe)"I was practically jumping for joy. In fact, some jumping may have been involved. And so, on a sunny day in January, Ash and I made our way from the lounge to the studio, and from the studio to the botanical gardens and I got to have fun taking some wonderful photographs of my gorgeous, amazing, one of a kind friendling.
It's taken awhile to get them up, but here they are.
Thanks once again to Ashlea, for being the best kind of sport - climbing trees on command and doing things that must have made you think that I was out of my mind. Here's to another two decades of friendship, and many many MANY more visits!!
