Category: News

Sundials were used to tell the time in the days before clocks and watches. Nowadays they make lovely garden decorations.

Several people have commented on the unusal smell arising from ‘muck spreading’ this autumn. The Enviromental Agency website says:

In June I shared concerns about the poor showing of common butterfly species in April and May. Since then, these anecdotal concerns have been formalised by the East Midlands Regional Butterfly Coordinator. Data collected through weekly transect counts across the region have been aggregated and show a decline of 40% plus in butterfly numbers. This is in comparison with 2023, which was itself a below-average year.

Did you know Leicester Museum & Art Gallery has been awarded the prestigious Museum of Sanctuary Award?

We'd like to let the good folk know that we have purchased and installed an Automatic External Defibrillator here at The Well.

A ‘compleator,’ is the name given to a person that has climbed all the Scottish Munros. These peaks take their name from Sir Hugh Munro (1856 – 1919). Sir Hugh's groundbreaking list of 282 highest mountains in Scotland was first published as ‘Munro’s Tables’ in the ‘Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal’ in 1891.

Stacey and Steven Briggs, owners of Windmill Farm Park, Kibworth Harcourt, LE8 0PR have, through innovative use of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), introduced the Nigerian Dwarf Goat breed into the UK.
Known as the world’s smallest Dairy Breed, the new Nigerian Dwarf Kid was born at Windmill Farm Park on 14 March. At just 22 cm tall, he is expected to grow no more than 60 cm, a third smaller than his standard UK dairy goat cousins. Extremely cute, he is already a firm favourite by the livestock team at the Farm.

(not the former British jazz group called Field of Blue!)
Flax is now becoming more common in the fields around Kibworth, taking the place of the heady smell of Oilseed Rape. Is Linseed oil and seed the new cash crop? Perhaps our farming readers can advise on this please.

Kibworth Post Office 1989 - 2012

Waxwings have featured in a previous Nature Note. From time to time a successful breeding season coincides with a poor crop of seeds and berries. The consequence is that large numbers of birds leave their forests in northern Europe and head south to seek food in non-traditional areas. If such an irruption occurs at the same time as a period of easterly winds, large numbers of birds reach the UK. These become known as ‘Waxwing Winters’ and following a gap of several years 2023-2024 is such a winter.