Friends of Rietvlei
Newsletter March 2006
EVENING ACTIVITIES
Our first Evening Talk for 2006 was held on 23 February on “The Bygone Years”. It was most pleasant reminiscing about the early days of Rietvlei and was well attended.
Our next evening gathering is our fund-raising gala play evening at the Milnerton Playhouse on Thursday 23 March. The Milnerton Players are putting on two short plays: The Public Eye/The Private Ear. Tickets are R50 each and include a glass of sherry before the performance. Make up a party, or come on your own, and join us for what promises to be a most enjoyable evening. The show starts at 8.15 pm, so arrive at the theatre from 7.45 pm.
Here is a synopsis of the plays for your interest:
Peter Shaffer (acclaimed playwright who also wrote Amadeus and Equus) wrote these two short plays. They are usually performed together although they are not really linked. Usually the same director will direct both plays, but for this production there are two different directors.
The Private Ear : Drama about a young man with low self-esteem. Invites a friend to join him for dinner with a young lady he's keen on - she ends up falling for the friend.
The Public Eye : Comedy about a man who falls in love and marries a younger, free-spirited girl. After a few years of marriage the relationship loses its spark until an unlikely private detective points the way back to romance.
For tickets please telephone Pauline on 557 6920 a/h or 464 4748 o/h or email at ppotton@heroldgie.co.za or at friendsofrietvlei@worldonline.co.za . Do this URGENTLY as 23 March is around the corner!!
We have paid R1800.00 to have the gala evening at Milnerton Playhouse and we desperately need you to assist in selling a few tickets/and come/ or give a donation if you cant come, if we are to make any money on the evening.
 
AUTUMN
Autumn is here, with its cooler days, bringing to an end the hot windy days which have characterised this summer in Cape Town . Sunrise is happening later and I for one am now leaving home for work in the dark. We have already had some much-needed rain. Nature is very forgiving, and dry parched areas recover and become green again surprisingly quickly. Bird life is still abundant and flamingos have been spotted from the highway.
 
WIND AND DUST AND SAND
Pumping of water to damp down the dust blowing off the pan has started and together with the rain should help reduce this problem. As many of you will have seen, the water level of the north and south vlei's is very low. This can be attributed to pumping so much water onto the central pan, as well as the low rainfall over summer 05/06.
 
EDUCATION CENTRE
Thanks are due to the Scouts, led by Andrew van den Honert, who worked so hard on our Education Centre, wielding paint brushes to seal the wood and beautifying the amphitheatre and path leading up to the Centre. The Education Centre will be used by schools to celebrate Water Week in late March. Water is a precious commodity and learning its value starts at a young age.
 
ICLEI CONFERENCE
Cape Town was host to the 2006 ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) World Congress and Rietvlei formed part of one of the biodiversity tours available to delegates from all over the world. After enjoying tea and refreshments and visiting the penguins at SANCCOB, the busload of delegates, led by Pat Titmuss, arrived at the Rietvlei Education Centre. The fifty five delegates included the new world president of ICLEI (from Canada ) and reps from Portugal , Norway , United States , South America , Germany , Netherlands , South Africa , Zimbabwe and Korea . In the Rietvlei Education Centre they were addressed by Pauline and Barbara from Friends of Rietvlei, who spoke about community involvement in conservation matters, and by Arno, one of the students, who spoke about his role in the capture and relocation in the middle of the previous night of Cape Hare from Phillppi into the Rietvlei reserve. Arno also explained how a reserve like Rietvlei is used by tertiary education institutions for experiential training and research. After visiting Rietvlei, the delegates continued on to the top of Blaauwberg Hill, for a magnificent view, and then on to Atlantic Beach for lunch and a discussion on biodiversity. They then finished the tour with a visit to the beach at Blouberg on their way back to the Convention Centre. The delegates expressed their admiration for our wonderfully bio-diverse environment. The theme of Biodiversity was introduced to ICLEI for the first time at this world conference and has now been adopted as a program to be added to the work of ICLEI. Well done Cape Town !! See www.iclei.org for more info.
 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Advance warning of our AGM, so please diarise it now: it will be held on Thursday 4 May at 19:30 for 20h00 at the Rietvlei Education Centre.
Please feel free to contact us on any matter. Our e-mail address is at the top of this newsletter as is our website address if you want additional information or to read past newsletters. An additional e-mail address is info@friendsofrietvlei.net . Please get involved!!!
Thanks still go to Caltex Refinery for sponsoring envelopes for the posted newsletter.
This newsletter comes to you with the kind assistance of Caltex.
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