Anyone for a four-night Scottish Highlands holiday with coach pick-ups in Cleethorpes and Grimsby?

                                                                 

The holiday is being put on by Yorkshire-based company Cairngorm Travel

 

THERE  are still places available on a four-night mid-January 2025 holiday to Kingussie, near Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands - with coach pick-ups in Cleethorpes, Grimsby and probably Immingham.

Most of those who have so  far booked on the holiday are going for the fresh Highland air, magnificent mountain scenery, convivial company - and the chance to watch red squirrels and scan the skies for golden eagles.

                                              

Red squirrel - often seen around the hotel

For those not particularly keen on walking, there is a railway station a couple of minutes' walk away from the hotel with services to Pitlochry, Perth and Inverness for shopping, sightseeing and/ or monster-hunting. 

There is also a bus stop outside the hotel with regular services to ski-town Aviemore.

The dates are: January 14 to January 18, 2025.

The holiday includes:

* Coach trip to and from Kingussie with pick-ups in Cleethorpes, Grimsby and probably Immingham  

* Four nights at the Duke of Gordon Hotel, with five-course candlelit evening meals and full Scottish breakfasts

* Live evening entertainment

* Optional nature-watching walks  within a five-mile radius of the hotel

The price: £259 each for the holiday for couples/ two persons sharing a room.     

There is a single person supplement - but this is being waived for the first 10 singles to make a booking.

As with similar trips in April 2023 and May this year, the holiday is being put on for birders by the long-established Yorkshire-based company Cairngorm Travel (01405 761334) in conjunction with the Lincolnshire Bird Club.

The  holiday is not in the company’s brochure, but more details about the Duke of Gordon hotel can be found at the Cairngorm Travel website. cairngorm-travel.co.uk

The booking number for the holiday is 01405 761334. 

The name of holiday is SB25-1/ Scottish Bird Safari January.

The previous two holidays - in April 2023 and May this year - to the same destination were really friendly, enjoyable events, and January's event should be similar.

More information from LBC secretary James Wright at Secretary@Lincsbirdclub.co.uk 

                                                  

A crackling log fire awaits . . .

The Duke of Gordon Hotel

The small town of Kingussie near Aviemore

                                                                

The River Spey runs a short way from the hotel

Always a warm welcome in Kingussie

                                                                                                             

* Photo of red squirrel by Peter Trimming via Wikimedia Commons

Long-established Grimsby eye care firm 'opts' to merge with a younger Cleethorpes competitor

                                                                

The premises in Cross Street, Cleethorpes, of Stephens & Drew. If customers are feeling peckish after their eye checks, there is a Chinese takeaway next door 

                     

IT'S the end of the road for a much-loved Grimsby firm that last year celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Optometrists C . A Segal, which has premises on Cleethorpe Road, is to merge with its Cleethorpes counterpart, Stephens & Drew, on Monday November 18.

The news will sadden many of the former's clients, but they will be relieved to know that the two optometrists, Jennifer Reeves and Amy Ellis, have  agreed to move Stephens & Drew, which is located at 9-11 Cross Street, Cleethorpes.

This is in order , to "provide the same friendly service and care"  that customers have come to expect.

The Grimsby firm was set up in 1948 with Carol and Clive Segal taking over the business in 1970.

In a letter to Segal customers, Stephens & Drew, which was established in 1958, describe the change as "exciting" and have pledged the "best possible eye care."

As a goodwill gesture, new Segal customers are being offered a 10 per cent discount on complete spectacle frames at their next appointment.

In tribute and in memory - Grimsby engineering firm's memorial to Royal Navy today unveiled in Cleethorpes

 

                                               

Three years after the idea was first conceived, a Royal Navy memorial was today unveiled opposite The Knoll in Pier Gardens, Cleethorpes. It has been created by Grimsby firm Blackrow Engineering. About 300 people attended the ceremony which included speeches, prayers and a hymn, Eternal Father. Among attendees were some currently  serving in the Royal Navy plus veterans. Also present were the Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, Cllr Steve Beasant, and Grimsby and Cleethorpes MP Melanie Onn.

                                       

                                                             

      

Appointment with the chainsaw beckons for one of Cleethorpes' most graceful trees - or does it?

                                                               

A 'landmark' tree - the sycamore is located in the garden of 4 Queens Parade but some of its branches overhang the car park of The Waterfront apartment block behind 

THE future for a 'landmark' tree off Cleethorpes seafront could suddenly become a whole lot uglier.

The 70-year-old sycamore, in the garden of a house behind The Waterfront apartment block, is both in magnificent condition and in magnificent shape. 

As well as being of intrinsic beauty, it attracts songbirds - robins, goldfinches, blue tits and other species.

But it is the activities of these same birds that have caused a problem..

Some residents at The Waterfront are so resentful of droppings landing on the tops of their parked cars that they have demanded that  overhanging branches are removed even though this would inevitably put the tree at risk of becoming damaged and misshapen.

The demand has dismayed Katie Teakle, of  neighbouring 4 Queens Parade, who has a stake in the matter - she is the proud owner of the tree . 

Says she:  "The magnificent shape of the tree is what gives it its exceptional beauty.

"What is more it has been here since many decades before The Waterfront was built. It is habitat for many species of bird. 

"This sycamore does not need to be butchered - it is a landmark tree, appreciated and admired by residents and visitors alike.

"Only two parking spaces are affected. Why could they not be relocated elsewhere on the site?" 

Ms Teakle is so anxious to protect the health and shape  of the tree that she has offered to part-pay for the cost of car port which would shelter the car tops from droppings.

But from accepting her effort to find a compromise,  The Waterfront Residents' Association has not only rejected her proposal but it has also engaged the services of a Grimsby tree surgeon  who is due on site  on November 11.

Given that the sycamore  and its integrity are covered by a tree  preservation order, could North East Lincolnshire Council come to its rescue? 

Possibly yes.

There is likely to be  a meeting among officers next week to determine whether lopping can proceed as requested by the Waterfront residents or whether Ms Teakle's arguments should prevail.

If they are uncertain how to determine the application, they have the option to defer it until the next NELC planning committee on November 27 when councillors will decide.

Gated entrance to The Waterfront carpark

A smattering of white  - the car most affected by the birds' droppings