©Kirton News 2023

The Editors Letter

As you may or may not know I have ran the local youth club for the last 2 years. But I’m sorry to say due to more commitments I am unable to carry on.

It would be a great shame to lose the youth club for the village. I am looking for someone who is willing to take over the running of the club. I will help in every way I can.

If you are able to give up 2 hours a week on a Wednesday night that would be great.

Please contact me.

Catrina

June already!

We are in the season of Pentecost which is often talked about as the birthday of the Church and that is true in a way as it is a time when we remember that the disciples were given a new lease of life and we are reminded that God has empowered us to do great things.

The disciples had met in a room and had been challenged by the people about their beliefs, so when they felt a rushing wind, when all doors and windows were closed, and saw tongues of fire, they knew that something special was happening – God sent the power of the Holy Spirit to give them courage. It was a courage that enabled them to witness about their experience with Jesus and all that He had taught them – to share that with all the world. We have to be grateful for that as it is their story which has inspired Christians down through the centuries ever since.

The people of the Old Testament believed that the Spirit of God was a rare and special gift which only the privileged elite would experience; such an honour went to those like Gideon, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and others of similar stature. For the rest, access to him mediated by priest and temple. The words of the prophet Joel who foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit, offered an entirely new relationship with God.

Yet that is the relationship experienced by the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and it is a gift offered to us in turn. God is not remote and detached, but can be experienced as a living reality within – encouraging, teaching, empowering, guiding – ever at work in our lives. There is no favouritism with God. One privilege is for us all to enjoy the inner presence of the Holy Spirit – surely the greatest privilege there can be!

In May we also celebrated the Trinity – acknowledging the different parts of God as Father – the compassion and love of our parent; as Jesus who lived on earth to become our Saviour on the Cross; as Holy Spirit to be the power that gives us strength and gifts to express our faith.

Being a Christian can seem to be a weak thing to do and without any relevance in our modern age but that is not so especially if you live in a country where Christians are persecuted and God offers us just what we need to stand up and be counted.
May you be blessed with the same courage that was given to the disciples in the early church. In Christ

Rev Irena

Letters to the Editor

Dear Catrina,

I have an interest in the history of a particular family who lived in Kirton in the early 20th century.

This family descended from John Robert Collins, a farmer and brewer who lived all his adult life in Wrangle. He married Emily Hollinshead from Martin and by her produced 7 children, including Ernest Herbert Collins (born 1878) and Alice Marianne Collins (born 1882). The latter preferred to be known by her second name Marianne. She never married.
In the 1901 census Ernest was living in Kirton and occupied as a brewer’s clerk, and by 1903 his sister Marianne was also there. Marianne was still there in the 1911 census and was evidently then living with her widowed aunt Myra Ann (nee Hollinshead) Green.
She may have continued living in Kirton as late as 1919-20, at which time she then left Lincolnshire to begin a new life in Portsmouth.

Of particular interest to me is a collection of four postcard photos in my possession showing Marianne with others performing in the “Kirton Pierrot Band”. I would guess they pertain to the period 1905-1919. I have attached one of these, in which Marianne is the woman at the centre.

I wondered whether any readers of the Kirton News could shed some light on this Pierrot band, or on the Collins/Green family members mentioned above.

Best regards,

(Dr) Christopher Hogger, Effingham, Surrey.

Dear Catrina,

I’d just like to say how much we enjoyed our prize winning three course meal at The Black
Swan Donington. The service was very prompt and courteous. Thankyou

Mrs B Bryant

Village Nominations

Hi Catrina,

I nominate Hayley for friendliest hairdresser at the 'The Salon' hairdresser at London road. She has been at the salon now for 6-7 months and built up a good reputation there; she is always very friendly and has a great bubbly appearance.
Thanks

Scott Martin

Dear Catrina,

If anybody should be nominated in Kirton for the magazine it’s the ladies in the charity scout shop.

Every time I go in there, by the way I’m 75. The ladies in there are better than Claire Rayner. Ladies go there perhaps not to buy. Just mention your troubles if you have one, they really listen and give you advice.
Also if you want a good laugh and joke you may go in gloomy stay inside for quarter of an hour and 5 men or ladies come out with a smile. The shop is so friendly although very small. I know they gossip so what it’s true. To think you can ponder and meet people friendly.

Good look to the scout shop - it will never be empty.

From a local yocal

Gardening Tips for June

Shrubs and trees

This is a good month for shearing, pinching or pruning Junipers, Cypress or Conifers. If you’ve been cultivating a special Christmas tree, sculpt it now.

Fertilize flowering shrubs like Rhododendrons, Camellias and Azaleas immediately after they have finished flowering with a ‘Rhododendron’ or ‘Evergreen’ type fertilizer.
Dead head the developing seed pods from your Rhododendrons and Azaleas to improve next years bloom. Be careful not to damage next years buds which may be hidden just below the pod. It’s hedge trimming time!

Fruits and veggies

Start any of the warm weather vegetables (Corn, Beans, Peppers, Egg Plant, Tomatoes, Squash, Pumpkins, etc.) as soon as possible.

Tap your tomato plants to encourage pollination; water every day and start feeding them weekly once fruits set. Protect your fruit from the birds with netting.
After natural fruit drop in late June, thin fruits on apple, pear, peach, and apricot trees carefully to produce larger, better fruit. Peach trees need 50 to 75 leaves per fruit to manufacture food for both fruit production and tree maintenance. Apple trees need 30 to 40 leaves per fruit. Continue thinning your vegetable seedlings to provide ample room for growth.

Mound the soil up around your potato plants. It does no harm to the plant if the soil covers the stem. Tubers near the surface which are exposed to sunlight will turn green and poisonous. As early potatoes begin to die back, reduce watering.

Allow one or two runners to develop from the most productive strawberry plants.
Plant your Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, and Cauliflower for next winter’s harvest.
Prune suckers and water sprouts from all fruit trees.

Lawn Care

Fertilize the lawn this month. Use a complete lawn fertilizer with a 3-1-2 ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

If your lawn suddenly looks yellow or dies out in patches, the cause is probably due to an insect or disease problem such as Crane flies.

If the weather becomes hot and dry raise the cutting height of the mower.
It’s not too late to reseed or over-seed the lawn. Be certain to keep newly seeded areas well watered.

Apply moss killers before temperatures reach 65 degrees.
Control Dandelions and other lawn weeds.

Odds and ends

At exactly 12:00 Noon, on June 15th, set your sundial for 12:00 to get the most accurate time reading throughout the summer.

Be alert to slug and snail damage... Seek and destroy ALL slugs!

Keep the weeds pulled, before they have a chance to flower and go to seed again. Otherwise, you will be fighting newly germinated weed seed for the next several years.

Bees, Bees & more Bees!

That is really good news from a Bee keepers point of view. After the long, cold winter I was surprised and happy to see that all my hives had survived although some better than others.

Now that spring is here, the good ones seem to be going mad and trying to make up for lost time. I have moved a couple of hives around to the gardens of some friends and they are doing well. In fact the hive in Swineshead will have some honey very soon from all the rape seed blossom.

Hopefully their hard work will be very beneficial and we will have a good crop of honey this year.
I have had to monitor these big hives very carefully and added extra space in boxes called Supers. Some of the hives have three or more supers on them to cope with their expansion.

If the bees don’t have enough room to grow and spread then the Queen will take flight to find them a better and bigger space and all the other bees will follow. This is when they swarm. This can look really scary but in fact the bees are so busy doing what their Queen tells them that they don’t have time to pay attention to humans. If you stand in the middle of a swarm and wave your arms about frantically like a mad man then you risk being stung as the bees think they are being attacked. If you find yourself in the middle of a swarm move quickly out of the way and keep your mouth closed!

The hives that are not doing so well need a little help so I open the hive up and smoking the bees to make them sleepy. I can then have a good look around and check that what I suspected is true, that the queen had not survived all the cold. Bees can make their own new Queens but this can take time so to speed up the process I have ordered new Queens from a specialist supplier.
The new Queens will come in the post in special little boxes sealed with beeswax. I place them carefully in the hive and while they chew their way through the wax the other bees get used to her and off they go to start their new family.

I will check all the hives regularly to make sure they are doing ok and when I can take some honey to spin. Beekeeping is quite labour intensive during the spring and summer months. I have to make the supers, frames, brood boxes and all sorts of things otherwise it can be a very expensive hobby. In the autumn I have to get ready for the winter.

All the old wax is recycled and cleaned. When I have enough I take it in to our local bee suppliers in Wragby and part exchange it for clean, pressed wax.

Well, I had better get going I have Hives to check. If you think you have a hive that needs collecting, have any questions or would like some honey when it comes in then please don’t hesitate to give me a call.

Paul Lanfranco - 01205 722976

Kirton Kids Club

What wonderful weather to come back to! The children have not spent one day in the hall yet – they have enjoyed outside activities each after school session. They have a huge choice of what they do, ranging from scooters to sport, role play to construction. They have even enjoyed eating their snacks ‘alfresco’ too.

A lot of the older children have beenknown to do their homework!

I hope this weather lasts for us – inside activities are great but outside is much more fun!
The club was open over the Easter holidays – the children enjoyed a huge variety of sports, games, cooking and arts and crafts.

The club offers children a varied choice of things to keep them happy and busy – to extend their knowledge, skills and social behaviour. The staff is fully trained and caring and continue to give the children help and encouragement in all areas when needed.

The breakfast club sessions include hot or cold breakfast and a drink plus play – then children are escorted to school by Kids’ Club staff. The younger children are taken to their teachers the older children meet up with their friends in the school playground.

After school session include a snack and drink plus numerous activities. The children are escorted from the school – again younger children are picked up by club staff from their classrooms – and all children are escorted to the club by staff.

The children are teamed up - younger with older for the short walk to the club. They are taught and observe road safety and use all crossings on their way.

The club is run as a non profit making charity which means all money is ploughed straight back into the club itself. This in turn means all children attending benefit from new toys and equipment purchased during the school year. We wish to thanks Beesons’ Butchers,KMB, Kirton Fruit and Flower shop, Exotics and Church Charity for their continued support in our eleventh year.

We have a few really appreciated and experienced volunteers too who put in hours here and there which helps us enormously.

Volunteers help out with activities, escorting or simply doing the washing up! Some even bake treats for the children or Easter cakes to raffle (yes I’m sure Louise knows that this thank you is for her lol).

‘Every little helps’ and we are grateful for any voluntary input. If you can spare an hour a week and wish to help out please feel free to pop into the club during sessions and have a chat.

Similarly – if you wish to book your child/children into any of the breakfast or after school sessions please pop in or phone 722426 during club times.

The club is open before and after school each term time day. The next holiday sessions are the last three weeks of the school summer holidays – these weeks have been chosen to work in with other local childcare providers – so please help us and book these week for your children with us!

The Mothers Union

Our meeting in June is on Wednesday 16th at 7.15pm in the Methodist hall. The speaker for this meeting is Elsie Johnson's daughter, Pauline Dulley, speaking about her work as a local optician and the different aspects of eye care. 

As always our meetings are open to all who would care to join us. We are a Christian organisation working to promote and support  stable family life in 76 countries worldwide.

Helen Airey

Town Hall Centenary & Village Day

Observant residents will be aware that the first stone of our Town Hall in Kirton was laid 100 years ago next year! (The date is on the front of the building)!
It was completed and opened the following year.

The Town Hall Management Committee intend to hold a public meeting at the Town Hall, in the autumn to hear your views about how you would like to celebrate this momentous occasion. We will be having our annual Town Hall village day in September 2011 of course, but we would like to hear your views about the possibility of arranging additional events.

The date for the meeting will be announced in the magazine in the summer months.

The Town Hall Village Day for this year is on Saturday 18th September and we look forward to seeing you all there.

For more information please contact Ann Booth tel. 01205 723345, or Paula Davies, Tel. 01205 722757.

Here is a list of classes for the Village Day, so you can all be thinking about which ones you may like to enter:

Childrens 3-7 years:
1) Decorated cupcake
2) A homemade bracelet
3) Fairy garden - on a tray/container no bigger than 10 cm x 20 cm

Childrens 7-11 years:
4) A bookmark
5) A Lego model

Craft Classes:
1) A handmade card
2) A cross stitched item
3) A water colour painting
4) A knitted item
5) A photograph – plant or flower
6) A photograph – animal - Photos to be no bigger than 8 x 10" and unframed

Agricultural classes:
1) Longest Bean
2) Tomatoes – up to three on a plate – any variety
3) Carrots – up to three on a plate – any variety
4) Onions – up to three on a plate – any variety
5) A Marrow
6) Parsnips – up to three on a plate – any variety
7) A Pepper
8) Potatoes – up to three on a plate – any variety
9) Beetroot – up to three on a plate – any variety
10) Oddest looking vegetable

Vegetables must be fresh and all varieties must be labelled Food classes:
1) A fruit loaf
2) A fruit pie
3) Jam tarts – 6 on a plate
4) Victoria sponge – with jam and cream
5) Decorated cake

Other classes:
1) Wine - fruit or flower, not kit form, clear bottle, plain white label (ie Apple wine, Sept 2010)
2) Foral arrangements.
Children’s classes will be 50p per entry and all others will be £1 per entry.

Good to be back

How good it is to be home. Roger and I went to live in Sydney ,Australia about 18 months ago. As much as we enjoyed living there things became very expensive in a short period. Our savings were very quickly disappearing so we decided to return to UK. It was very sad for us to leave our daughter and family but one has to be practical about things.

Australians are very friendly and will do anything to help you though they are quite a nosey lot, but in a nice way. Except when they get behind the wheel of a car!

There is much to see; Sydney Harbour is quite spectacular and the Opera House is wonderful. We drove up the coast to Townsville in Queensland which took four days, saw some bush fires and kangaroos on the way and met many nice folks.

We had possums that played at night on the roof of our house. I think they had parties; it sounded as though they all wore clogs. Spiders, oh yes we had HUGE very colourful ones but it is the small ones that are very poisonous as well as many snakes.

Most of the beaches are very nice but not safe. If the sharks, blue bottles (jelly fish) don’t get you the rips (dangerous currents) will. What I’m saying is that you have to be very careful when spending time at the beach and be well prepared before you go walking in the bush.

There are a lot of positive things about Australia, it is such an interesting place and we don’t regret spending time there but I must say it is so nice to be back

Elsie Booth

Open Gardens at Freiston & Scrane End

Open Gardens will be held at Freiston and Scrane End at Boston on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th June from 1pm to 5pm.

You can gain entry to the gardens by buying a map from the Butterfly Trust shop in Emery Lane. The price for adults is £1.50 and accompanied children are free.
At Scrane End there will be refreshments, craft stalls, Jack’s photos of local interest, tombola and raffle.

Proceeds will be split equally between Butterfly Trust and St Barnabas Hospice, Boston. For further details please ring on Julie 01205 352492, Beryl R. on 760657 or Beryl W. on 760434.

English Triffle to die for

Preparation time:
15 mins Cooking time: 30 mins

Ready in:
2hrs 45 mins

Ingredients:
350g chocolate chips
1 (9”) sponge cake, cut in cubes
1 cup seedless raspberry jam
8 ounces fresh raspberries
10 fluid ounces heavy cream
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons white sugar
10 fluid ounces heavy cream
2 ounces sliced almonds

Directions:
Spread a little jam on each piece of cake and place in the bottom of a large glass bowl.
Sprinkle raspberries over cake.
Heat 10 fl. oz. cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
While the cream is heating, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale yellow and smooth.
Strain yolk mixture into a clean bowl.
Pour hot cream into egg yolks and stir vigorously
Return mixture to pan over low heat and cook, stirring, until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
While custard is cooling, whip 10 fl oz. cream until soft peaks form.
Place almonds on a baking sheet and toast, in a 300 degree oven or toaster oven, stirring frequently, until golden, 2 to 10 minutes.
Spread cooled custard over cake in bowl.
Top with whipped cream and toasted almonds.
Chill 2 hours before serving.

The Registers

Baptisms - We welcome into God’s family:

4th April - Mya Georgina Ruby Lane
11th April - Paris Leonie Brooke-Wiseman
25th April - Keira Hancock

Weddings - We ask God's blessing on:

no weddings listed this month

Funerals - We commend to God’s keeping:

no funerals listed this month

Scouts & Cadets News

2010 is our Centenary year and to celebrate we are having a very special weekend camp in the village at Middlecott School on Friday23rd to Sunday 25th July.

As part of our celebrations we are having a Saturday night special and have booked the live ceilidh band, Frog on a Bike to entertain us in the school hall.

We would really love for you to come and join us on this special Saturday night.
Tickets are only £5 per person and includes your supper. The evening will kick off at 7.30 pm and will end with us sending off 100 Chinese lanterns (we hope!)

Bring your own drinks. Unfortunately the school does not have a license for alcohol so only soft drinks are allowed.

If you are interested in joining leaders from 4th Boston (Kirton), our DC, ADCs and District Secretary on Saturday 24th July then please contact me using the information below and I will be happy to organise you some tickets.

Yours in Scouting

Lesley Lanfranco
Group Scout Leader