My first blog for the Simply Green website, so excuse me if I have a little stage fright and stumble over my lines a bit! I hope that some readers will find my blogs enjoyable or interesting - maybe even both. This first one might be a bit ‘stiff’ but I have several other blogs in mind!

I belong to a couple of 'Friends of', one of which is Friends of the BCA, BCA standing for Blaauwberg Conservation Area. We generally hold our meetings and talks at the Log Cabin at Eerste Steen picnic grounds next to the beach, just off Otto du Plessis Drive, near Melkbosstrand. For those of you elsewhere in the country you can visit us at http://www.bca.org.za/friends.html/.

Recently we had our first committee meeting of 2010. Committee meetings can be a tad boring, but at the first of the year we usually get to meet any new students who have been allocated to the area and also decide on some of the talks and events that we plan for the coming year.

This year there is only one student and that is Daniel Droste, whose interests lie in the ocean - and starting an organic vegetable garden at the Melkbos student house. He feels the students do not eat as healthily as they should and if they create an organic vegetable garden this will serve several purposes, not the least being that they and the staff of the BCA will enjoy home grown vegetables. His hope is also that the garden can be used as an educational tool, as the BCA has a good educational programme in place and learners can visit the garden to find out about sustainable food growth and recycling of organic waste etc. He also hopes that this might motivate other reserves and conservation areas to run similar projects where feasible. It will be interesting to follow the progress of this project and Daniel’s work at the reserve over the coming year.

The FoBCA  and the BCA, like other organisations, do have open days and events as well as talks. The historical Blouberg Hill is part of the reserve and Hiking and Mountain Biking clubs are welcome to apply to the BCA for permission to enter the part of the reserve that includes the Hill. The BCA has a nice mix of outings that are likely to take place this year which include a Horse outride [Morningstar horse riders], Fitness Walk, Sundowners Walk, Biodiversity Walk, Two Hill Fun Run, Alien Clearing, Heritage Walk, Spring Walk, Coastal Walk and a Sunset Walk.

Then we have the Alien Clearing outings where we welcome assistance from all interested people, families, schools, environmental groups, single people, you name it, to help root out alien vegetation. Some of this is clearing older vegetation and some of it is going over areas previously cleared to take out new alien shoots. This is a very important job and the more people who come along the more can be cleared. Last year 100 Melkbos trees were also planted on the reserve during a planting session to reintroduce local flora back into the area. These sessions normally take place on a Saturday morning for a couple of hours only. These events are always advertised in the free newspapers for the area.

We also have open evenings, which are normally interesting talks held at the Log Cabin, Eerste Steen. When I have the confirmed talks and dates I will post them here in a blog in case any of you are interested. And, anyone who has an interesting and appropriate subject that they can talk on that might be of interest to our members please contact me. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Oh, and whilst I am about it I might as well tell you that we are looking for new members! Some younger ones would be great to counterbalance some of us more wrinkly members. Membership starts in March and there are certain benefits, such as not having to pay to go on some of the open days. It works out at around R5/mnth for a family membership – what can you buy for R5 these days? Not much, but you can have a membership to the FoBCA for a monthly fee of that.

Okay, I think that’s enough from me on this subject for the moment. Speak to you soon.