SOUTH KILWORTH NEWS February 2011 DIARY Tue Thur Fri Sat Mon
1st 3rd 4th 5th 7th
Tue Wed Thur Sun Mon
8th 9th 10th 13th 14th
Tue
15th
Thurs Sat Sun Mon
17th 19th 20th 21st
Tue Wed Thur Sun Mon
22nd 23rd 24th 27th 28th
No. 405 10.00 19.00 19.00 20.30 18.30 20.45 19.00 10.00
MaMites, Village Hall Art Club, Village Hall First Friday, White Hart Quiz Night, White Hart Football, Village Hall / Playing Field
Parish Council Meeting, Village Hall MaMites, Village Hall Mobile Library (School 12.00, Leys Crescent 12.30, North Road 12.50) 19.00 Art Club, Village Hall 09.45 4th Sunday before Lent, Family Service, St Nicholas Church 18.30 - Football, Village Hall 20.45 09.30 Weekday Holy Communion, St Nicholas Church 10.00 MaMites, Village Hall 19.30 W.I. Village Hall 19.00 Art Club, Village Hall 20.30 Quiz Night, White Hart 09.45 3rd Sunday before Lent, St Nicholas Church 18.30 - Football, Village Hall 20.45 10.00 MaMites, Village Hall Mobile Library (School 12.00, Leys Crescent 12.30, North Road 12.50) 19.00 Art Club, Village Hall 10.30 Avon-Swift Group Holy Communion at North Kilworth 18.30 - Football, Village Hall 20.45
ADVANCE NOTICE Wednesday 9th March Friday 25th March Friday 29th April Thursday 5th May Friday 13th May Saturday 8th October Saturday 5th November Saturday 11th November Saturday 17th December
South Kilworth News AGM Fish Supper Big Eat Polling Day Andrew Garnier MP 10 year Village Hall Celebrations Bonfire Night Safari Supper Children’s Party
Croft Acre, The Belt Village Hall Village Hall Village Hall Village Hall Village Hall Village Hall / Playing Field Village Hall
VILLAGE HALL BOOKINGS Contact Michael Murphy on 01788 861877 or 0777 6065385 The South Kilworth News is edited by Ann Saunders Please send copy for the March edition by 21st February to Ann Saunders Smithy House, Welford Road Tel: 575 338
Email: am.saunders@virgin.net
The South Kilworth News is printed by Colin Olle. Advertising enquiries to Colin Olle Croft Acre, The Belt Tel: 575 791 Email: colin.olle@tiscali.co.uk
TEAM VICAR’S LETTER “The whole world needs love . . .” February has come again and I am drawn to think of love. All around there are pink and red hearts in shop and restaurant windows. These are of course advertising St. Valentine’s Day, but they are a cheerful reminder to me of how important love is to all of us – we all need to know we are loved. Love is a central part of the mission statement of the Avon Swift Group of parishes, where we are urged to respond to God’s love and to share it with others. I have a little book all about love, written from the viewpoint of children. It features insights like: “I think you’re supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn’t supposed to be so painful” from Manuel (8). And nine-year-old John’s picture that falling in love is “Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life.” I particularly like “Love is good and so are chocolate-covered peanuts” from Pamela (8) and “If it means you never have time to go fishing, then love isn’t for me” (Danny, age 6). It’s easy to smile and to move on, back to our serious adult world. But in amongst the amusing observations are some thought-provoking ones too, like eight-year-old Walker’s statement: “Love means never hating somebody just because they’re different on the outside.” Children often seem able to cut through the complications of the adult world to find the very heart of things. On one page of my little book about love there is a picture of the world being held up by five people and underneath is nine-year-old Sharon’s thought: “The whole world needs love. But it takes some people a long time to understand that.” The examples of suffering, of persecution and hatred to be found in all corners of the world may well lead us to nod sagely at that. However, just because some do not seem to understand the nature of love does not mean we should give up in despair. We all know that love is present within our world and the power of love is strong enough to overcome hatred and apathy, just as light will always overcome darkness. As Christians, the concept of love is central. The heart of the Christian gospel is that God, the creator of all, chose to identify with his creation by becoming one of us, and God did that out of love. It is out of the recognition that we are loved by God that we find the hope, the motivation and the strength to reach out to others in love, as well as the faith that this imperfect world will someday be transformed. Thus we become like those people in the picture holding up the world, reaching out their arms to others, while outside the picture, unseen, is God, holding everything in everlasting arms, reaching out to us in love. This February, whether we choose to notice the pink and red hearts or not, may we take time to discover God’s love for us, and how we may respond to it, so those in the world around us know that extraordinary love for themselves. With every blessing, Revd Emma Davies
All enquiries regarding Church matters should be directed to:The Revd. Emma Davies, The Vicarage, 5 Church Lane,Gilmorton, Telephone:-01455 556 573 The Revd Jane Kennedy, 17 Cromwell Close, Walcote, Lutterworth, Telephone: 01455 554 065
CHURCHWARDEN’S NOTES Our Team Rector, the Reverend Canon Kenneth Baker retired at the end of January. During the period until a new appointment is made, the Reverend Emma Davies will look after the Avon Swift Team Ministry Benefice and thus our parish. Sam Lloyd, Churchwarden.
PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES AND MEETINGS Due to computer problems the Parish Council Minutes for December 2010 cannot be provided in time for the South Kilworth News February publication. Minutes for December will be provided for the March issue of South Kilworth News. There was no Parish council meeting January, due to illness. The next Parish Council meeting is on Monday 7th February when a representative from Harborough District Council will be attending to show us the proposal for switching off street lights at midnight within the village. All Parishioners are welcome to attend the meeting which starts at 7pm in the Village Hall. Suzanne Taylor
NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL We recently enjoyed a visit from the author and illustrator Shoo Rayner. He spent the whole day with the children telling stories, drawing and explaining to them how an author gets inspiration. We are now hoping to see a development in our own story writing! After a wonderful day Shoo left us with some signed prints and did a book signing session for the children. The Key Stage 2 children have been looking at ways to save water with Severn Trent, we hadn't realised how much water we all use every day and how much we take it for granted! Angela Dewes
W.I. REPORT We started the New Year with a fun evening playing “Family Fortunes� - like the TV show. The lady who organised this had asked 15 questions to over 100 people aged from 8-80, male and female and different nationalities. The first question was 'name the most famous school'. Answer - Eaton! According to her survey the second most famous school was Hogwarts! We had fun coming up with the answers, but also hearing the ones she - had especially from her own hairdresser! Extremely delicious home made refreshments followed. Next month we have a lady visiting from the Youth Offenders Scheme - Tuesday 15th February at 7.30pm if you would like to join us. Louise Boffey
ITCHY GREEN FINGERS ? Would anyone like to take on a large productive fruit and vegetable garden from January? Situated on the Rugby Road, Swinford there is a shed, greenhouse and poly tunnel and easy parking. Pat Robottom 860862
SOUTH KILWORTH NEWS AGM
The South Kilworth News Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 9th March at 7.30pm at Croft Acre, The Belt.
FISH SUPPER FRIDAY 25TH MARCH This very popular meal event is already selling out fast, tickets must be ordered and paid for in advance, only a few left. Contact Ray Dorman on 018585 575518 /07780846002.
BIG EAT FRIDAY 29TH APRIL A free family fun day at the village hall from 2pm to celebrate the royal wedding. Bring your own picnic / barbeque.
EDITORIAL I have to apologise for an error I made in last months SK News by stating that our oil had cost over 70p per litre when in actual fact it was 47.85p per litre (plus vat). I discovered this whilst looking for our actual oil prices to give to Sarah Langvelde. Maybe I had transposed the figures and read the cost as 74p per litre. It shows I should check my facts rather relying on my memory. As you will see from Sarah’s article it appears that we actually paid less for our oil than she did. Apologies and thanks to Yobco. If other people can provide their oil and gas prices it will be interesting to see what variation there is. As February is a short month I would be grateful if people could provide all articles by 21st of the month to allow the March SK News (complete with bumper Parish Minutes) to be issued by the weekend at the end of the month. Ann Saunders
L.P.G. PRICES Thank you to everyone who contacted me, concerning prices of LPG gas, following the article in last months’ SK News. The main points that have been raised are:• Most people have a two year contract but if the supplier increases their prices by over 3.5p per litre in any 3month period, you can cancel the agreement. • If you wish to change supplier when the contract expires other suppliers will give you a better price and change or takeover the existing tank for free. • Alternatively some people then re-negotiate with their existing supplier and obtain a much better price, especially if you threaten to change. Another problem that has arisen when changing supplier is that the tank may be in a position which does not comply with current health and safety regulations, therefore, it may have to be moved. The best price I have received is 38p per litre from Flogas (obviously this could depend on your yearly usage). If anyone has any further comments of queries on the subject please contact me, andymathias@sky.com or telephone 575691.
OIL AND GAS PRICES I found that reading Ann and Nick's comments about oil & gas prices gave me an uncontrollable urge to create an Excel spreadsheet! (fellow accountants will understand). There is clearly a vast difference between oil prices - I’m slightly shocked that we paid 11p per litre more than Ann for a delivery of oil on 7th December! I think it would be useful to the village as a whole if we (I) keep track of the prices paid by each of us and publish the information in graphical form each month. I can start this now and build a picture or, if people can bring themselves to dig into their filing cabinets, people can give me information about their last 12 month's purchases and I can produce a rolling 12 month historic view of oil and gas prices each
month. No personal info will be published, just an aggregate picture of what ppl was paid to which supplier. To do this, I need people to give me the following information: Supplier name Date delivered Price per litre (p) (INCLUDING VAT) Note if delivery was for more or less than 500litres (this may show a pattern of bulk discounting) Note if you have a regular supply (auto top up) or whether you order as and when needed (again, this may affect price) I will produce separate graphs for oil and gas and hopefully we might be able to see a trend. If people commit to get the information to me 5 working days before the copy date for the SK News, I will make sure the updated info is published and it can be used in a timely manner (no point finding out Yobco was the cheapest 3 months ago). You can email the information to sarah@360degreebusinesssolutions.com at any time, but for those of you happy to help me build up a picture now, sooner rather than later would be useful to give me enough time to pull it together for next month's copy. For those without email access, you cap drop a note through the door at Squirrel Bank, North Road (opp. Monte Bello). Sarah Langeveld
SOUTH KILWORTH BIRDS January has kicked off a little like December finished – generally quiet on the birding front. In the garden I have recorded the normal array of winter birds including coal tit, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, up to 7 pheasants and good numbers of winter thrushes. I have also had a small party of long tailed tits visiting the feeder on a regular basis – always a good way to brighten up a dull January day!! Keep your eye open for these distinctive birds as they move along hedgerows and trees in small flocks. In January I also had a visit from a yellowhammer on a couple of occasions – uncommon in our garden and great to see. I had a message from a fellow birder in the village informing me that he had seen a treecreeper in his garden. Not that rare in the county but still a good addition to the garden list.
Long tailed tit
Stanford Sightings Large areas of the reservoir were frozen over during December and early January forcing a lot of the waterfowl away to other locations. I have heard and seen a small flock of siskins around the dam area on a fairly regular basis. I have also seen a lone kingfisher several times. Winter thrushes have continued to gather with large mixed flocks of redwings and fieldfares. My prediction of the arrival of waxwings in the village has still not materialised. This is despite the fact that we are surrounded by many hundreds of birds in Northamptonshire and around the city centre and suburbs of Leicester!! Surely there must be one out there somewhere??? Once we are through January and February things will start to liven up on the birding front. I dont know about you but I cant wait for those first signs of spring! Chris Hubbard