Last night we had the pleasure of hosting a group of American tourists, eye surgeons visiting South Africa for a golf and sight seeing holiday. Searching on tripadvisisor for a unique food tourism experience they decided to dine at Okapi a la Carte restaurant to experience local food and game meats at their best. Upon arrival they could not decide what to eat, so we served a small portion of everything from stuffed giant black Mushrooms to Giraffe tail potjie, pepper crusted fillet of Zebra, fillet of Giraffe, traditional Karoo Lamb bredie and Mozambique peri peri Chicken. Our guests left happy and we wish them a wonderful holiday in our magnificent country. Imagine my joy this morning when I was copied into a Whatsapp message, recommending Okapi restaurant to the agent in the States, with a suggestion that they consider sending customers visiting South Africa to Okapi a la Carte restaurant for an amazing food tourism experience, thank you Blair, we really appreciate it. You can't miss it if you've never traveled, traveling is the number one best way to broaden your horizons. Book your table today. 

Events director Daisy needed more space in the lounge area as it was not large enough to host medium size functions. Renovation needed to be done quickly, after one week the venue was ready, here are the before and after photos, from start of work to a baby shower last Saturday. 

The Blue Mango Lodge is something of a Birding Hotspot with over 80 birds identified in the beautiful gardens. Birds fall into several categories, All year round Summer visitors Winter visitors Occasional visitors Nesting birds Today we had a new visitor, two African Grey Hornbills , this is a common bird , seen regularly in the bush, but not one that I have seen in our garden. It's always a thrill to see a new species and this siting brings us ever closer to 100. 

I came across this sign on a Facebook group and immediately downloaded it. It just captures the essence of who we are as a species and who we are as hosts. Come and enjoy your personal Blue Mango experience to understand why we are so highly rated and why so many return 

Long before we started our guest lodge, I had been buying eggs from my friend and neighbour at Beaver poultry farm Rob and Zelda offer the very best eggs available and we are so lucky to have them just around the corner. I was often astounding by the size differences in the eggs which are graded from extra small to super jumbo. Rob and Zelda very kindly save me their very best graded supers sized eggs which can only fit 15 to a tray. Eggs are best eaten as fresh from the chicken as possible, so I make my daily pilgrimage to buy a half tray or full tray depending on how busy or what we are making that day. Customers from all around the world comment on how good our eggs are, now half the secret is out, Beaver farm, the other half is how we prepare them. In the photograph I show the sizes differences with a match box for scale, what you cannot tell however is the weight difference, the largest eggs possibly weigh 8 to 10 times that of the smallest. Book your bed with breakfast today to see what all the fuss is about. 

In 2015 professor Lee Berger made a monumental announcement; the discovery of a previously unknown hominid which had been named Homo naledi. The fossil discovery in the cave systems known as the Cradle of Humankind had been kept secret since being unearthed two years earlier. Blue Mango Lodge offer a variety of professional tours from the well trodden to the bespoke and obscure, but one of my personal favorites is the Cradle of Humankind and Sterkfontien. It not only gives tourists the opportunity to see real life South Africa on the 80 minute journey, but also allows one to look hundreds of thousands of years back in time. Now, professor Berger is at it again, titillating our taste buds and taking us to the edge of our seats with talk of another huge development. Lee was being coy on the subject yesterday but a major announcement is imminent. This will make the Cradle of Humankind an even more interesting place to visit on future tours. Keep your eyes on the major news channels or watch this space for further details. 

Every now and again something or someone comes along to touch your ♥. Going through some photos taken prior to covid I came across this cute photo of a creche graduation. The Blue Mango Lodge Garden Venue is a wonderful location for hosting a variety of events from an informal lunch to a lavish wedding or black tie gala dinner. Why not check out some of the amazing functions which have taken place here, then keep us in mind for future events. You will be glad you did.

We wanted to plant some green beans along an old fence, firstly because it's a great trellis for the beans to climb on as the beans grow vertically, and secondly it will create a screen and living wall. Chatting with our neighbour through the fence he said that he has a type of Portuguese bean which is far better than green beans, the following day he kindly gave me some beans for planting. They were planted about 5 days ago and are now starting to sprout, they are extremely fast growing and it would be a nice little scientific experiment for my daughter to measure their daily average growth. Once they are about 30cm tall we will plant the next batch. I hope that they are as nice as me says they are.

The past few days have been baking hot and technically still in winter Spring fever is in the air with plant nurseries and garden centres overflowing with people browsing or loading cart loads of annual flowers such as marigolds into their cars. Each year we shake dead heads from our three types of marigold, they then reseed themselves for next season at no cost. At the moment we are cconcentrating on our entire garden but with emphasis on veggie production as well as training and growing flowering vines and creepers in our wedding venue. We found a little Bay leaf tree at a small previously unknown nursery for the bargain price of R 50.00. We had a decent sized pot containing thyme but nothing suitable for the bay leaf, which we did not want to plant directly into the ground. We removed the thyme from the bigger pot and planted the Bay, then replanted the thyme into a smaller pot with new compost, we should now be self sufficient in Bay, Curry leaves and Rhubarb.